tracer
an inquiry sent from point to point to trace a missing shipment, parcel, or the like, as in a transportation system.
any of various devices for tracing drawings, plans, etc.
Also called tracer ammunition. ammunition containing a chemical substance that causes a projectile to trail smoke or fire so as to make its path visible and indicate a target to other firers, especially at night.
the chemical substance contained in such ammunition.
a substance, especially a radioactive one, traced through a biological, chemical, or physical system in order to study the system.
Origin of tracer
1Words Nearby tracer
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tracer in a sentence
Contact tracers tried to identify everyone exposed and figure out where the virus might have come from.
Smallpox used to kill millions of people every year. Here’s how humans beat it. | Kelsey Piper | February 5, 2021 | VoxIf somebody tests positive for covid-19, contact tracers use it to track down those who got close enough to be potentially infected.
Broken promises: How Singapore lost trust on contact tracing privacy | Bobbie Johnson | January 11, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewAmerica’s pandemic response has suffered from a well-publicized lack of PPE, of tests, of contact tracers.
A depleted workforce and no end in sight: An inside look at America’s ailing health care industry | Erika Fry | December 8, 2020 | FortuneSpotting the novel virus as early as possible can signal infectious people to isolate themselves, and help contact tracers identify and notify anyone they’ve been in close quarters with.
Contact tracers in Anne Arundel County reached out to families every day to check on possible symptoms.
After telling more than 800 athletes and coaches to quarantine, a county halts youth sports | Ovetta Wiggins | November 30, 2020 | Washington Post
Suddenly, the darkness came alive with muzzle flashes and tracer rounds.
From PTSD to Prison: Why Veterans Become Criminals | Matthew Wolfe | July 28, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTFirst, however, I was injected with a radioactive tracer that allowed activity in my brain to show up on the scan.
tracer bullets, each with a descending arc, were zinging all around as Rigg swung LCI(L)-88 to the right.
The Story of the American Journalists Who Landed on D-Day | Timothy M. Gay | June 6, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTBelow us, on Sultan Ismail Street, government troops thrust lances of tracer fire towards a horde of approaching cadavers.
The Extinction Parade: An Original Zombie Story by Max Brooks | Max Brooks | January 14, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTThree men snapped down behind the tracer-guns, firing without aiming, in a frenzied attempt to catch the fleeing sled.
Derelict | Alan Edward NourseFiring was incessant from the beginning, and the air seemed blue with tracer smoke.
The Heroic Record of the British Navy | Archibald HurdHere I am, a mechanical engineer, about to tackle the job of a professional detective and tracer of missing persons.
Highways in Hiding | George Oliver SmithA thin stream of glowing red and orange tracer bullets soared up at the plane from the Catanzas side of the bay.
The Five Arrows | Allan ChaseEvery tenth bullet was a tracer that made a white trail in the sky allowing you to track them.
The Biography of a Rabbit | Roy Benson
British Dictionary definitions for tracer
/ (ˈtreɪsə) /
a person or thing that traces
a projectile that can be observed when in flight by the burning of chemical substances in its base
ammunition consisting of such projectiles
(as modifier): tracer fire
med any radioactive isotope introduced into the body to study metabolic processes, absorption, etc, by following its progress through the body with a gamma camera or other detector
an investigation to trace missing cargo, mail, etc
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for tracer
[ trā′sər ]
An identifiable substance, such as a dye or radioactive isotope, that can be followed through the course of a mechanical, chemical, or biological process. Tracers are used in radioimmunoassays and other laboratory testing. The use of radioactive iodine, for example, can give information about thyroid gland metabolism. Also called label
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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