trickle
Americanverb (used without object)
-
trickles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
trickled,
past participle, past
-
trickling
present participle
-
to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.
Tears trickled down her cheeks.
-
to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.
The guests trickled out of the room.
verb (used with object)
-
trickles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
trickled,
past participle, past
-
trickling
present participle
verb
-
to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams
she trickled the sand through her fingers
-
(intr) to move, go, or pass gradually
the crowd trickled away
noun
-
a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something
-
the act of trickling
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tricklesimple
-
tricklessimple
-
have trickledperfect
-
has trickledperfect
-
am tricklingprogressive
-
are tricklingprogressive
-
is tricklingprogressive
-
have been tricklingperfect progressive
-
has been tricklingperfect progressive
Past
-
trickledsimple
-
had trickledperfect
-
was tricklingprogressive
-
were tricklingprogressive
-
had been tricklingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
To trickle is to weakly flow out of something, like a faucet. A trickle is like a drip. There are a lot of ways water can flow, but one type of slow dripping is called trickling. If your shower is only releasing a trickle of water, you're not going to get much of a shower. If it's raining — but only a trickle — you might not need an umbrella. A slightly leaky roof is trickling. A trickle is the opposite of a downpour or flood. Trickling can also be called dribbling.
Vocabulary lists containing trickle
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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.
See Examples For:
But a trickle of upgrades in the past few races finally all came together with the introduction of a new floor in Baku, the weekend before Malaysia.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
And when interest rates are stable, banks “can use that as an advantage, as an opportunity to trickle savings rates lower,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Yosemite Falls is dry and Vernal, Nevada and Bridalveil falls are usually down to a trickle in September.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
US forces have seemingly been able to facilitate a sufficient trickle through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days to avert an oil-price shock or a global economic collapse.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
He watches my lips, and I let my words trickle out as softly as his...on the influx of better thoughts.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
“Book influencers love genre fiction, and it trickles out from there.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Their influence trickles down to fans in other ways.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Wells Fargo recommends stocks in the tech, industrials and financial services sectors as spending on artificial intelligence trickles down into the rest of the economy.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Pistachio’s ubiquity is also new as the nut trickles down from TikTok virality to mass market explosion.
From Salon ● May 6, 2026
When she begins describing his amputated leg, a tear trickles down my face against my will.
From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez
Students trickled into some schools despite ongoing protests outside their gates, ahead of a day of larger demonstrations expected on Tuesday.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
That White House staffers apparently felt comfortable anonymously attacking Holmes in personal terms suggests that the impulse has trickled down too.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
The crowd, which leaned younger in part because the event allowed attendees 18 and older, trickled in around 7 p.m., and by 9 p.m., the party was in full swing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
Residents trickled in, bringing pets and helping the elderly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
A peat fire burned smokily in the large fireplace against one wall, and the smoke trickled out of the chimney far above.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
Auen and Walker delight in trickling real historical information — the result of painstaking research they both conducted studying the Chronovisor — through the film at a slow but steady, always compelling pace.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
Details are still trickling out, but here’s what we know.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026
The money starts compounding immediately instead of trickling in over the five years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Yet it’s hard to see the spoils of an AI-driven economy trickling down to everyone.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
All now seemed dry and silent; but refusing to despair Sam stooped and listened, and to his delight he caught the sound of trickling.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
