trawl
verb
\ ˈtrȯl
\
\
trawled;
trawling;
trawls
Definition of trawl
(Entry 1 of 2)
1a
: to fish with a trawl
b
: to make a search as if by trawling
2
: troll sense 1a
: to catch (fish) with a trawl
trawl
nounDefinition of trawl (Entry 2 of 2)
1
: a large conical net dragged along the sea bottom in gathering fish or other marine life
2
: setline
Examples of trawl in a Sentence
Verb
The boat trawled far out at sea. a fishing boat trawling the ocean floor He trawled the Internet looking for Web sites on growing grapes. She was trawling through old letters for information about her family.
Recent Examples on the Web: Verb
Search teams have been trawling the rainforest surrounding the Dusun resort since the 15-year-old, who has a learning disability, was found to be missing from her bedroom on Sunday, August 4. — Rob Picheta, CNN, "Parents of missing teenager Nora Quoirin offer reward for information, as search enters its second week," 12 Aug. 2019 Police have now launched an investigation and are trawling CCTV of the ship as well as interviewing passengers. — Fox News, "Indiana toddler, allegedly dangled by grandfather, dies after plunging 150 feet from cruise ship: report," 8 July 2019 Sometimes that dedication to maintenance means trawling eBay for sufficiently old laptops to make that happen. — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, "If you’re crazy rich, you can pay Ferrari to be a test driver," 14 June 2019 The Australian Square Kilometer Array, a network of 36 radio dishes in western Australia, is also trawling for more examples and working to pinpoint their exact homes. — Joshua Sokol, WIRED, "Astronomers Think They Can Explain Mysterious Cosmic Bursts," 10 Mar. 2019 Even though YouTube discourages children under the age of 13 from trawling its vast video library, content targeted at and featuring children under that age is among the most popular on the platform, according to a new study. — James B. Cutchin, Los Angeles Times, "YouTube isn’t for kids. But kids videos are among its most popular, study finds," 25 July 2019 Among the searchers were agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who appear to have trawled drivers’-licence photos in Utah, Vermont and Washington—all states that provide licences to undocumented immigrants. — The Economist, "America mulls regulating facial recognition," 11 July 2019 And shrimp boats trawling in U.S. waters since 1987 have been required to equip their nets with escape hatches for sea turtles. — Washington Post, "Rare sea turtles smash nesting records in Georgia, Carolinas," 13 July 2019 Elastic, maker of a Splunk-like data trawling product, just snapped up Endgame, a CrowdStrike competitor, for a comparatively measly $234 million. — Robert Hackett, Fortune, "The Cybersecurity Market Is Consolidating—Cyber Saturday," 8 June 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
Using advanced sonar equipment, a research team led by center biologist Brant Allen began locating populations of shrimp in the bay, and then removed them with a trawl net. — Los Angeles Times, "Will Lake Tahoe’s invasive shrimp become the next mass-market health supplement?," 7 Sep. 2019 Crew members deploy a research trawl net from the deck of the MY Esperanza during the ship's expedition to the Sargasso Sea, a unique region in the North Atlantic Ocean that is home to a diverse array of marine life. — Shailene Woodley, Time, "Shailene Woodley: How I'm Changing My Life to Help Save the Seas," 4 Sep. 2019 Along with research assistant Shane Antonition, who is with the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo, Ojeda spends hours picking through the sargassum and what was collected in the manta trawl net. — Arwa Damon, CNN, "Microplastics discovered in 'extreme' concentrations in the North Atlantic," 19 Aug. 2019 Off the side of the Esperanza, the manta trawl lazily gobbles up water samples from the ocean's surface that are filtered through its long mesh tail. — Arwa Damon, CNN, "Microplastics discovered in 'extreme' concentrations in the North Atlantic," 19 Aug. 2019 To survey ocean life, researchers typically drag trawl nets or haul up traps and log what turns up in them. — Amanda Paulson, The Christian Science Monitor, "Message in a bottle: Forensics meets marine science with eDNA," 15 Aug. 2019 But the fact that some of those caught in the trawl have been exporting fillets ready for consumption rather than fresh fish suggests they may be organised, and are trying to evade Norway’s systems of licences and controls for commercial fishing. — The Economist, "Norway has haddock enough of fish smugglers," 8 Aug. 2019 While fishermen far off shore occasionally report pulling up a white shark in a trawl or fish trap, the real thing isn’t common within swimming and surfing range. — Amanda Milkovits, BostonGlobe.com, "Just passing through: Why sharks don’t seem to stop in Rhode Island on their way to Cape Cod," 23 July 2019 Starting in the 1960s, seamounts north of the Hawaiian Islands were heavily fished and scarred with trawl nets. — Scientific American, "Ballistic Maggots, Synthetic Winks and Why You’re Not Goop: This Week’s Best Science GIFs," 9 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'trawl.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for trawl
trawl
verb
English Language Learners Definition of trawl
(Entry 1 of 2)
: to catch fish with a large net (called a trawl)
: to search through (something) in order to find someone or something
trawl
nounEnglish Language Learners Definition of trawl (Entry 2 of 2)
: a large net that a boat pulls along the bottom of the ocean to catch fish
See the full definition for trawl in the English Language Learners Dictionary
trawl
verb
\ ˈtrȯl
\
\
trawled;
trawling
Kids Definition of trawl
(Entry 1 of 2)
: to fish or catch with a large net dragged along the sea bottom
trawl
nounKids Definition of trawl (Entry 2 of 2)
: a large net in the shape of a cone dragged along the sea bottom in fishing
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