noun
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a vessel used for trawling
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a person who trawls
Etymology
Origin of trawler
Explanation
A trawler is a boat that's used for fishing. Trawlers drag large fishing nets behind them. The special nets used on trawlers are called trawls. Both words come from the Middle Dutch traghelen and its root, the Latin tragula, "dragnet." That's exactly what a trawler (also called a dragger) does—it drags a net behind it. Trawlers are controversial, because although strictly regulated, they can damage seabeds and accidentally catch fish that are endangered or too small.
Vocabulary lists containing trawler
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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.
There are opulent chairs, upholstered in pale yellow; a black and white print of a trawler that nods to Hull's fishing heritage.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
This modest trawler, the Rose of Nevada, no longer contains its doomed crew and yet here it is, without explanation and ready for new fishermen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
Within hours of carrying the first telegram across the English Channel in 1850, the earliest “submarine telegraph”—27 miles of copper wire wrapped in a rubbery substance called gutta percha—was broken by a fishing trawler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
The magazine also highlights cultural sites such as the Hull Maritime Museum, Spurn Lightship and the Arctic Corsair – a former deep-sea trawler that helps tell the port city's story.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025
Half an hour later, he returned to the trawler with his parents to sleep.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
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.
