Trace, v. t. [imp. & p. p. traced p. pr. & vb. n. tracing.]
1. To mark out; to draw or delineate with marks; especially, to copy, as a drawing or engraving, by following the lines and marking them on a sheet superimposed, through which they appear; as, to trace a figure or an outline; a traced drawing.
Some faintly traced features or outline of the mother and the child, slowly lading into the twilight of the woods. --Hawthorne.
2. To follow by some mark that has been left by a person or thing which has preceded; to follow by footsteps, tracks, or tokens.
You may trace the deluge quite round the globe. --T. Burnet.
I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways
Of highest agents. --Milton.
3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of.
How all the way the prince on footpace traced. --Spenser.
4. To copy; to imitate.
That servile path thou nobly dost decline,
Of tracing word, and line by line. --Denham.
5. To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.
We do tracethis alley up and down. --Shak.
traced
adj : derived by copying something else; especially by following
lines seen through a transparent sheet [syn: copied]