16th century, borrowed from Dutch tragelen (“to pull with a towline, trawl”), from Middle Dutch traghelen, from traghel (“dragnet”) (presumably from Latin tragula (“dragnet”)), and as such root-cognate with English drag and dray.
Meanings
A net or dragnet used for trawling.
A long fishing line having many short lines bearing hooks attached to it; a setline.
An exhaustive search.
I embarked on a trawl through my uncle's papers in search of his missing will.
16th century, borrowed from Dutch tragelen (“to pull with a towline, trawl”), from Middle Dutch traghelen, from traghel (“dragnet”) (presumably from Latin tragula (“dragnet”)), and as such root-cognate with English drag and dray.
Meanings
(ambitransitive) To take (fish or other marine animals) with a trawl.
The fisherman went out to trawl the deep sea for shrimp.
(intransitive) To fish from a slow-moving boat.
They used a large net to trawl for fish along the coast.
(intransitive) To make an exhaustive search for something within a defined area.
We need to trawl through the data to find meaningful patterns.
fr chaluter (To fish with a trawl) · fi troolata (To fish with a trawl) · it sciabicare (To fish with a trawl) · id memukat (To fish with a trawl) · ru тра́лить (To fish with a trawl) · pl łowić włokiem (To fish with a trawl) · sh pročešljati (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · es esculcar (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · pl wyszukiwać (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · sv tråla (To fish with a trawl) · bg траля (To fish with a trawl) · id menjaring (To fish with a trawl) · es escurcar (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · de durchforsten (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · es pescar con red barredera (To fish with a trawl) · es hacer pescar arrastrera (To fish with a trawl) · sh kočariti (To fish with a trawl) · tl mamalakaya (To fish with a trawl) · pl złowić włokiem (To fish with a trawl) · pl wyszukać (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · es pescar arrastreramente (To fish with a trawl) · fr passer au peigne fin (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · ru прочёсывать (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area) · es pescar al arrastre (To fish with a trawl) · es rastrear (To make an exhaustive search within a defined area)