paper trail
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of paper trail
First recorded in 1975–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Christie’s specialist Giada Damen, who spent months retracing its paper trail and showing it to Michelangelo experts, said this foot wound up with a Swiss diplomat whose family held onto it for generations.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026
With no paper trail from a hospital birth, none of the trio will ever be able to trace their mother.
From Barron's • Jan. 14, 2026
There will be a paper trail, either email or snail mail.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 20, 2025
He will seek and then pour over the paper trail, talk to Angela Rayner and attempt to establish a definitive timeline of what she did and when and who she spoke to and why.
From BBC • Sep. 4, 2025
A paper trail to a Chickasaw great-grandfather none of them had ever known was a path into a past she’d spent her whole life escaping.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
