trailer
Americannoun
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a large van or wagon drawn by an automobile, truck, or tractor, used especially in hauling freight by road.
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Also called travel trailer. a vehicle attached to an automobile and used as a mobile home or place of business, usually equipped with furniture, kitchen facilities, bathroom, etc.
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a person or thing that trails.
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a trailing plant.
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a short promotional film composed of clips showing highlights of a movie due for release in the near future.
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blank film at the end of a reel or strip of film, for winding off the film in a motion-picture camera or projector.
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Ceramics. a can with a spout, used in slip trailing.
noun
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a road vehicle, usually two-wheeled, towed by a motor vehicle: used for transporting boats, etc
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the part of an articulated lorry that is drawn by the cab
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a series of short extracts from a film, used to advertise it in a cinema or on television
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a person or thing that trails
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Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): caravan. a large enclosed vehicle capable of being pulled by a car or lorry and equipped to be lived in
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of trailer
Explanation
A trailer is a wheeled vehicle that can't move on its own — it needs to be pulled by a car, truck, or other vehicle. Some bike-riding parents tow their small children behind them in bicycle trailers. The trailer you might put a boat on, hitching it to your truck, trails behind the vehicle that's pulling it. Another meaning of trailer is a film preview or advertisement that theaters show before a movie. It might seem strange to call it a trailer when it comes first, but the earliest trailers, at the start of the 20th century, came after the movie, trailing it.
Vocabulary lists containing trailer
Because of Winn-Dixie
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Film and Literature
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American Street
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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.
When Juror No. 5 showed up in a navy blazer, Laurey Trailer, who later became forewoman, got annoyed.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
Choudhury’s excitement prompted him to create the fan account, “Is the ‘End of Oak Street’ Trailer Out Yet?,” where he could post news about the film and form a community of fellow dinosaur enthusiasts.
From Salon • Apr. 12, 2026
His new film, Trailer Park Boys Presents: Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties, is in cinemas from 10 January.
From BBC • Jan. 8, 2025
The Scout, said Randy Nonnenberg, cofounder of the automotive auction platform Bring a Trailer, has “always been an underdog.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 29, 2024
Trailer parks on miles of concrete, with window boxes covered in ash.
From "Feed" by M.T. Anderson
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.
