trickle
verb
trick·le
| \ ˈtri-kəl
\
\
trickled;
trickling\ ˈtri-k(ə-)liŋ
\
\
Definition of trickle
(Entry 1 of 2)
1a
: to issue or fall in drops
b
: to flow in a thin gentle stream
2a
: to move or go one by one or little by little
customers began to trickle in
b
: to dissipate slowly
his enthusiasm trickled away
trickle
nounDefinition of trickle (Entry 2 of 2)
: a thin, slow, or intermittent stream or movement
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Synonyms for trickle
Synonyms: Verb
distill (also distil), dribble, drip, drop
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Examples of trickle in a Sentence
Verb
Tears trickled down her cheeks. Water was trickling out of the gutter. People trickled into the theater. Donations have been trickling in.Noun
We heard the trickle of water from the roof. The flow of water slowed to a trickle. Sales have slowed to a trickle in recent weeks. A slow trickle of customers came into the store throughout the day.
Recent Examples on the Web: Verb
To write Tools and Weapons, Smith holed up before dawn in a windowless meeting room, running through Browne’s edits while his colleagues trickled onto campus. — Romesh Ratnesar/redmond, Time, "How Microsoft's Brad Smith is Trying to Restore Your Trust in Big Tech," 8 Sep. 2019 When the financial crisis trickles down and curbs the cash flow of their Wall Street clients, whose predatory practices set a dubious moral example for the titular antiheroines, Ramona transforms into something like Gordon Gekko in a G-string. — Los Angeles Times, "How Lorene Scafaria’s ‘Hustlers’ turned a tabloid stripper drama into an ode to female empowerment," 6 Sep. 2019 These permeable materials allow stormwater to trickle through and move more slowly, which reduces the chance that heavy rains will overwhelm storm drains and dump sewage and debris into the harbor. — Washington Post, "Experts: Rising heat in cities requires swift, local action," 6 Sep. 2019 Sebastian Polter levelled shortly after the hour with a trickling toe-poke, only for Maximilian Phillip to rifle a fierce effort into the roof of the net to restore the Yellow and Black's lead. — SI.com, "Union Berlin vs Borussia Dortmund Preview: Where to Watch, Buy Tickets, Live Stream & Team News," 29 Aug. 2019 Total water is decreasing in the 1,450-mile river, which trickles from high mountain snow northwest of Denver and carves canyons up to a mile deep. — Bruce Finley, The Denver Post, "West wrestles with Colorado River “grand bargain” as changing climate depletes water governed by 1922 compact," 25 Aug. 2019 The state provided her with mental health therapy, but reports of bad behavior in day care started trickling in, and then pouring in. — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, "She’s been bounced through more than a dozen foster homes. And she’s just 6," 24 Aug. 2019 And my big concern is that a lot of the rhetoric that happens in the US trickles over in a very negative way and affects access to lifesaving drugs. — Molly Rubin, Quartz, "How an ER doctor and a Purdue Pharma whistleblower think about the opioid crisis," 21 Aug. 2019 One by one, the cars trickled onto the 18th fairway at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in northern California, backlit by the rising sun over Monterey Bay. — Fortune, "Pebble Beach: What to Expect from America’s Most Prestigious Car Show," 13 Aug. 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
This past week’s full moon saw the first trickles of blue-winged teal migrating south from their nesting grounds on prairies of the north-central U.S. and south-central Canada, many of the little ducks headed for Texas. — Shannon Tompkins, Houston Chronicle, "Teal hunters await answers to 2 key questions," 21 Aug. 2019 If that possibility is unpersuasive, there’s also a risk to the U.S.: Regional turmoil is enlarging the trickle of refugees from Congo showing up at the southern border. — Bloomberg Opinion, Twin Cities, "Other voices: Congo’s ebola outbreak isn’t just Congo’s problem," 8 Aug. 2019 That’s where the Auburn-Georgia scheduling trickle down comes into effect. — Michael Casagrande | [email protected], al, "Why Alabama’s 2020 schedule looks different from others," 7 Aug. 2019 High-bandwidth memory has its place in the world, but we’d be shocked to see the expensive technology trickle down into $200 consumer graphics cards by 2020. — Brad Chacos, PCWorld, "Intel's first discrete Xe graphics cards will cost $200, battling AMD and Nvidia for the mainstream crown," 2 Aug. 2019 How did the phenomenon trickle into other parts of fashion? — Liana Satenstein, Vogue, "Marc Jacobs Will Receive MTV’s First-Ever Fashion Trailblazer Award," 30 July 2019 With the Democrats preparing to debate this week just an hour down the interstate, in Detroit, the trickle of candidate visits to Flint has become a wave. — Griff Witte, Washington Post, "In Flint, suspicions of the water — and of Democratic candidates — run deep," 29 July 2019 But in recent years a trickle of migration has become an exodus. — Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic, "How this quiet region in Guatemala became the epicenter of migration," 26 July 2019 That could have a devastating trickle-down impact on children and their futures, Lisa Davis, senior vice president of Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign, said in congressional testimony in June. — Aimee Picchi, CBS News, "70 mayors tell Trump that cutting food stamps will "harm our economy"," 21 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'trickle.' 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 trickle
trickle
verb
English Language Learners Definition of trickle
(Entry 1 of 2)
: to flow or fall in drops
: to move or go slowly in small numbers or amounts
trickle
nounEnglish Language Learners Definition of trickle (Entry 2 of 2)
: a slow, thin flow of water
: a slow movement of people or things in small numbers or amounts
See the full definition for trickle in the English Language Learners Dictionary
trickle
verb
trick·le
| \ ˈtri-kəl
\
\
trickled;
trickling
Kids Definition of trickle
(Entry 1 of 2)
1
: to run or fall in drops
2
: to flow in a thin slow stream
3
: to move slowly or in small numbers
Customers trickled in.
trickle
nounKids Definition of trickle (Entry 2 of 2)