trickle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.
Tears trickled down her cheeks.
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to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.
The guests trickled out of the room.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams
she trickled the sand through her fingers
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(intr) to move, go, or pass gradually
the crowd trickled away
noun
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a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Most tourists, the majority from Russia and China, arrive with all-inclusive packages, meaning that spending doesn’t trickle down to ordinary Cubans as visitors don’t spend much outside their preapproved itinerary.
Company earnings releases start to trickle in ahead of the unofficial start of fourth-quarter earnings on January 13th and 14th, when the big banks will report results.
From Barron's
“It’s not just specific to silver and gold,” Turnquist said — noting that higher copper prices can end up costing manufacturers more, which can easily trickle down to prices paid by consumers.
From MarketWatch
And so you have to have a leader that is a true believer, so that sort of mentality trickles down.
Bondi’s efforts to cover this up have only guaranteed that the documents are trickling out a little at a time, meaning the story isn’t going away any time soon.
From Salon
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.
