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Trawl

//tɹɔl// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A net or dragnet used for trawling.
  2. 2
    a conical fishnet dragged through the water at great depths wordnet
  3. 3
    A long fishing line having many short lines bearing hooks attached to it; a setline.
  4. 4
    a long fishing line with many shorter lines and hooks attached to it (usually suspended between buoys) wordnet
  5. 5
    An exhaustive search.

    "I embarked on a trawl through my uncle's papers in search of his missing will."

Verb
  1. 1
    To take (fish or other marine animals) with a trawl. ambitransitive

    "The fisherman went out to trawl the deep sea for shrimp."

  2. 2
    fish with trawlers wordnet
  3. 3
    To fish from a slow-moving boat. intransitive

    "They used a large net to trawl for fish along the coast."

  4. 4
    To make an exhaustive search for something within a defined area. intransitive

    "We need to trawl through the data to find meaningful patterns."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

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