trickle

[ trik-uhl ]
/ ˈtrɪk əl /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR trickle ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), trick·led, trick·ling.

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), trick·led, trick·ling.

to cause to trickle.

noun

a trickling flow or stream.
a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding: a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

Origin of trickle

1325–75; Middle English triklen, trekelen (v.), apparently sandhi variant of strikle, perhaps equivalent to strike (in obsolete sense “flow”) + -le

OTHER WORDS FROM trickle

trick·ling·ly, adverb

Words nearby trickle

trick out, trick-or-treat, trick-track, trickery, trickish, trickle, trickle charge, trickle charger, trickle irrigation, trickle-down, trickle-down theory

Words related to trickle

stream, seep, leak, flow, ooze, percolate, crawl, dribble, creep, issue, drop, drip, distill, weep, exude, trill

Example sentences from the Web for trickle

British Dictionary definitions for trickle

trickle
/ (ˈtrɪkəl) /

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

Derived forms of trickle

trickling, adjective tricklingly, adverb trickly, adjective

Word Origin for trickle

C14: perhaps of imitative origin