trailer

American  

[tray-ler] / ˈtreɪ lər /

noun

• trailers
  plural

1. a large van or wagon drawn by an automobile, truck, or tractor, used especially in hauling freight by road.

2. 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.

3. a person or thing that trails.

4. a trailing plant.

5. a short promotional film composed of clips showing highlights of a movie due for release in the near future.

6. blank film at the end of a reel or strip of film, for winding off the film in a motion-picture camera or projector.

7. Ceramics. a can with a spout, used in slip trailing.

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trailer British  

/ ˈtreɪlə /

noun

1. a road vehicle, usually two-wheeled, towed by a motor vehicle: used for transporting boats, etc

2. the part of an articulated lorry that is drawn by the cab

3. a series of short extracts from a film, used to advertise it in a cinema or on television

4. a person or thing that trails

5. 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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• trailers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of trailer

First recorded in 1580–90; trail + -er ¹

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trailer trailers

The trailer closes out with Galadriel’s haunting words, “We are, all of us, on the path to ruin now,” and Sauron forging the One Ring.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

With her cover blown anyway, Khosla crosses the powdery dirt yard to the trailer at the chipping yard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Its trailer quickly amassed nearly 80 million views on YouTube.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

The truck drives itself from a depot to another where the trailer is unloaded or a human takes over for docking or the final mile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

A bunch of kids piled on at the bus stop in front of the trailer park.

From "The Million Dollar Shot" by Dan Gutman

"The clips are almost like trailers for the main events," he says.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

The trailers are driven onto a machine known as a tipper and detached from their trucks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Crews used forklifts to push the waste outside, where it was loaded into sealed trailers for transport to special dump sites in several states.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

Ordinarily, I try not to spend too much of my one precious life watching Marvel trailers — or Marvel movies, for that matter.

From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026

And then she tinned back around and started to sing a song that was about trailers being for sale or rent.

From "Raymie Nightingale" by Kate DiCamillo

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Related Words

• mobile home

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