trickle

American  

[trik-uhl] / ˈtrɪk əl /

verb (used without object)

trickled, trickling

1. to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.

   Tears trickled down her cheeks.

2. to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.

   The guests trickled out of the room.

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verb (used with object)

trickled, trickling

1. to cause to trickle.

noun

1. a trickling flow or stream.

   Synonyms:

   drip, seepage, dribble

2. a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding.

   a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

trickle British  

/ ˈtrɪkəl /

verb

1. to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams

   she trickled the sand through her fingers

2. (intr) to move, go, or pass gradually

   the crowd trickled away

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noun

1. a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something

2. the act of trickling

Other Word Forms

• trickling adjective
• tricklingly adverb
• trickly adjective

Etymology

Origin of trickle

1325–75; Middle English triklen, trekelen (v.), apparently sandhi variant of strikle, perhaps equivalent to strike (in obsolete sense “flow”) + -le

Example Sentences

I feel a trickle of sweat drop behind my ear into a channel down my neck.

From Literature

Details of the killings—and the anger they have unleashed—are gradually trickling out of the country as more Iranians share evidence and recount their experiences to friends, relatives and activists abroad.

From The Wall Street Journal

Files began to transfer again, but the stream of people filling the outer lab had slowed to a trickle.

From Literature

Local residents called for contributions, and money slowly started trickling in.

From Barron's

Helping cash trickle further down the ladder is one of the reasons leading players are campaigning for the Grand Slams to offer more prize money.

From BBC

Related Words

• crawl
• creep
• dribble
• flow
• leak
• ooze
• percolate
• seep
• stream