trickle

American  

[trik-uhl] / ˈtrɪk əl /

verb (used without object)

trickled, trickling

1. to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.

   Tears trickled down her cheeks.

2. to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.

   The guests trickled out of the room.

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verb (used with object)

trickled, trickling

1. to cause to trickle.

noun

1. a trickling flow or stream.

   Synonyms:

   drip, seepage, dribble

2. a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding.

   a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

trickle British  

/ ˈtrɪkəl /

verb

1. to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams

   she trickled the sand through her fingers

2. (intr) to move, go, or pass gradually

   the crowd trickled away

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noun

1. a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something

2. 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

But once Iran placed mines in the water and threatened to strike tankers, traffic slowed to a trickle.

From The Wall Street Journal

The flood of inquiries would slow to a trickle.

From Literature

Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for roughly 20% of the 100 million barrel a day oil market, has slowed to a trickle.

From The Wall Street Journal

The relative trickle of oil passing through the Gulf and the release of oil from reserves is such that, according to Pyziur, belies another potential problem: the lack of fertilizer coming out of Gulf countries.

From Salon

The first NIL millionaires in college athletics started trickling in shortly after the new rules went into effect five years ago, but now payments to the top athletes are exploding.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• crawl
• creep
• dribble
• flow
• leak
• ooze
• percolate
• seep
• stream