/tɹæk/
OriginFrom Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac (“track of horses, trail, trace”), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic source, either Old Norse traðk ("a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (“a track; path; tread”), Faroese traðk (“track; tracks”), Norwegian tråkke (“to trample”)) or from Middle Dutch trec, *trac, treck ("line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)), German Low German Treck (“a draught; movement; passage; flow”). See tread, trek.
- A mark left by something that has passed along.
“Follow the track of the ship.”
“Can you see any tracks in the snow?”
- A mark or impression left by the foot, either of man or animal.
“The fox tracks were still visible in the snow.”
- The entire lower surface of the foot; said of birds, etc.
- A road or other similar beaten path.
“Follow the track for a hundred metres.”
- Physical course; way.
“Astronomers predicted the track of the comet.”
- A path or course laid out for a race, for exercise, etc.
“The athletes ran round the track.”
“The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering an”
- The direction and progress of someone or something; path.
“You cannot simply “get” your child back on track; you and others can only help your child with that task.”
“My track record was enough proof that I couldn't use women for medicinal purposes, and even my attempts at casual relationships were not adequate enough to even temporarily release the poisons inside ”
- The way or rails along which a train moves.
“They briefly closed the railway to remove debris found on the track.”
- A tract or area, such as of land.
- slangThe street, as a prostitute's place of work.
“A real pimp is a gentleman, but these are pimps in gorilla suits. They hang around pimps, they have hoes on the track working for them, they may even look like pimps, but they are straight simps.”
“After putting Tonya Down on the track, we headed to this club called the Players Club.”
- Awareness of something, especially when arising from close monitoring.
“You will need to keep track of meetings with your lawyer and court deadlines.”
“We have to formulate what we want, be so concentrated on it, so focused on it, and so aware of it that we lose track of ourselves, we lose track of time, we lose track of our identity.”
- The distance between two opposite wheels on a same axletree.
- abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsisEllipsis of caterpillar track.
- The pitch.
- Sound stored on a record.
- The physical track on a record.
- A song or other relatively short piece of music, on a record, separated from others by a short silence.
“My favourite track on the album is "Sunshine".”
- A circular (never-ending) data storage unit on a side of magnetic or optical disk, divided into sectors.
- uncountableThe racing events of track and field; track and field in general.
“I'm going to try out for track next week.”
“The University of Virginia belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and competes interscholastically in basketball, baseball, crew, cross country, fencing, football, golf, indoor track, lacrosse, polo”
- A themed set of talks within a conference.
“This year's third annual Women's Institute will include two tracks—on health and organizational issues—because of the overwhelming response and demand for more workshops last year.”
- abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, colloquialClipping of trackshoe.
- PhilippinesA specialization in senior high school. Some tracks consist of strands.
- transitiveTo observe the (measured) state of a person or object over time.
“We will track the raven population over the next six months.”
- transitiveTo monitor the movement of a person or object.
“Agent Miles has been tracking the terrorist since Madrid.”
“Vlad says there is an American drone the Russians can't track. He wants a lot more of those.”
- transitiveTo match the movement or change of a person or object.
“My height tracks my father's at my age, so I might end up as tall as him.”
- intransitive, transitiveTo travel so that a moving object remains in shot.
“The camera tracked the ball even as the field of play moved back and forth, keeping the action in shot the entire time.”
- intransitiveTo move.
“The hurricane tracked further west than expected.”
- transitiveTo traverse; to move across.
“I've swept o'er the mountain, the forest and fell, / I've played on the rock where the wild chamois dwell; / I have tracked the desert so dreary and rude, / Through the pathless depths of its solitude”
- transitiveTo tow.
- intransitiveTo exhibit good cognitive function.
“Is the patient tracking? Does he know where he is?”
“Bess already knew about the painkillers and alcohol not mixing well.... "I wasn't tracking very well."”
“My mother in the past couple of days has started to really get confused and lose her train of thought easily.... She isn't tracking very well.”
- transitiveTo follow the tracks of.
“My uncle spent all day tracking the deer, whose hoofprints were clear in the mud.”
- transitiveTo discover the location of a person or object by following traces.
“I tracked Joe to his friend's bedroom, where he had spent the night.”
“"She could be at any hospital...she could be ill. It's not clear whether she has fled," he told reporters. "Yingluck has many homes and many cars. It is difficult to track her."”
- transitiveTo make tracks on or to leave in the form of tracks.
“In winter, my cat tracks mud all over the house.”
- intransitive, transitiveTo create a musical recording (a track).
“Lil Kyle is gonna track with that DJ next week.”
- intransitive, transitiveTo create music using tracker software.
“At the time, tracking chiptunes (i.e. using trackers) was the fundamental method of chipmusic-making.”
- colloquial, intransitiveTo make sense; to be consistent with known information
“Vitron isn't hiding anything. The oil is there, the books are open, everything tracks.”
“Before he took off, our guy went online... to transfer all his personal accounts into his checking account. CDs, money market funds, everything. That tracks. According to Nick, he was trying to sell t”
“There was an electrical storm in the center of this blizzard, Ben. It's extremely rare, but it can happen. Dark lightning? I can't prove it, but it tracks.”
- To separate into educational tracks, each of which teaches to a different level of ability.
“Most working class kids are purposely "tracked" through schools, kept uninformed about scholarships and remedial education/vocation programs and shepherded into dead-end jobs.”
Formstracks(plural) · tracks(present, singular, third-person) · tracking(participle, present) · tracked(participle, past) · tracked(past)