trickle

  • 1trickle — trick‧le [ˈtrɪkl] verb [intransitive] to move somewhere slowly and in very small numbers or amounts: • Only four or five customers had trickled in by 11:30. • Details of the programs have trickled out over the past weeks, but haven t been widely …

    Financial and business terms

  • 2trickle — (v.) late 14c., possibly an aphetic variant of stricklen to trickle, a frequentative form of striken to flow, move (see STRIKE (Cf. strike)). Related: Trickled; trickling. The noun is 1570s, from the verb. Trickle down as an adjectival phrase in… …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 3trickle — ► VERB 1) (of a liquid) flow in a small stream. 2) (trickle down) (of wealth) gradually benefit the poorest as a result of the increasing wealth of the richest. 3) come or go slowly or gradually. ► NOUN 1) a small flow of liquid. 2) a small group …

    English terms dictionary

  • 4trickle — [trik′əl] vi. trickled, trickling [ME triklen < ?] 1. to flow slowly in a thin stream or fall in drops 2. to move, come, go, etc. little by little [the crowd trickled away] vt. to cause to trickle n. 1. the act of trickling …

    English World dictionary

  • 5Trickle — Tric kle (tr[i^]k k l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Trickled} (tr[i^]k k ld); p. pr. & vb. n. {Trickling} (tr[i^]k kl[i^]ng).] [OE. triklen, probably for striklen, freq. of striken to flow, AS. str[imac]can. See {Strike}, v. t.] To flow in a small,… …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 6Trickle — Tric kle, n. The act or state of trickling; also, that which trickles; a small stream; drip. Streams that . . . are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud. James Bryce. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 7trickle — index distill, exude, paucity Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …

    Law dictionary

  • 8trickle — [v] run out crawl, creep, distill, dribble, drip, drop, exude, flow, issue, leak, ooze, percolate, seep, stream, trill, weep; concepts 146,179 Ant. flow …

    New thesaurus

  • 9Trickle Up — [http://www.trickleup.org Trickle Up] is a nonprofit international development organization that empowers people living on less than $1 a day to take their first steps out of poverty. Founded in 1979 by Glenn Leet and Mildred Robbins Leet,… …

    Wikipedia

  • 10trickle — trick|le1 [ˈtrıkəl] v [I always + adverb/preposition] [Date: 1300 1400; Origin: Perhaps from the sound] 1.) if liquid trickles somewhere, it flows slowly in drops or in a thin stream trickle down/into/out ▪ The tears trickled down her cheeks. 2.) …

    Dictionary of contemporary English