[f. TRACE v.1 + -ING1.] The action of TRACE v.1, or its result.
1. The following of traces, tracking; also † concr. pl. traces left, tracks (obs.).
1523. Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII., c. 10. Diuers persons … by reason of the trasinge in snow, haue killed and destroied … the same Hares, by .x. xii. or .xvi. vpon a daye.
1657. Thornley, trans. Longus’ Daphnis & Chloe, 116. A Wolf pursued me: where are the tracings of a Wolf?
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Training, or Tracing,… used by our miners to express the tracing up the mineral appearances on the surface of the earth to their head…, and there finding a mine.
1910. M. Gaster, in Encycl. Brit., XII. 40/1. In various parts of Germany and Austria a special register is kept for the tracing of the genealogy of vagrant and sedentary Gipsy families.
† 2. The treading of a measure; dancing. Obs.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., F iij b. It fell by course N.O. shoulde leade this trace, bycause he knewe it beste, the tracyng of this rounde requyred in the middle thereof a conge.
1596. Davies, Orchestra, xiii. No … sight more pleasing to behold, With all their turnes and tracings manifold.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. xxix. 22. Of dancing and dalliance, or tracing, and tripping on the toe, we read not.
3. Drawing, delineating, marking out; the copying of a drawing, etc., by means of a transparent sheet placed over it.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 499/1. Tracynge, or drawynge for to make an ymage or an other thynge (K. to make a pycture or gravynge).
1573. (title) A … treatise, wherein is … sett forthe the arte of Limming, which teacheth the order in drawing & tracing of letters, vinets, flowers, armes and Imagery.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 87. The Manner of Tracing, reduced to Twenty Practices.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 728. Tracing against the Light.
1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 236/1. The slow progress of a fresco-painting, from the ‘tracing’ to the last touch.
1884. Mil. Engineering (ed. 3), I. II. 21. The tracing of parallels and approaches is commenced in the dusk of the evening, when sufficiently dark to conceal men from the view of the besieged.
b. concr. That which is produced by tracing or drawing; a drawing; spec. a copy made by tracing; also, the record of a self-registering instrument.
1811. Wellington, in Gurw. Desp. (1838), VII. 142. Murray … tells me that he sent after you … a tracing of a large part of Alemtejo.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, ii. (1868), 127. Tracings from frescos and other large works are also of great value.
1864. Lond. Rev., 27 Aug., 247/2. The Psychonomy of the Hand … is illustrated by tracings from living hands of various endowments.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxvi. 644. A collection of such tracings will be found in the Bodleian Library.
1874. H. H. Cole, Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus., 251. The centre [of the embroidered pattern] is occupied by a circular disc of beautiful floral tracing.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 373. The sphygmographic tracing [in melancholia] usually indicates a feeble systole.
† 4. A timber used in building; ? a framing timber. Obs.
1601. Deacon & Walker, Answ. to Darel, Catal. D.’s Contradict., No. 50. The groundsels, the studs, the raysing peeces, the iouystes, the tracings, and all the rest of the timber belonging thereto.
1616. Nottingham Rec. (1889), IV. 348. For ouer liggers and trasinges for ye same bridge x s.
5. attrib. and Comb.: tracing-board, a board on which a plan, as of a building, is traced; tracing-braid, ? narrow braid used in an interlacing design; tracing-cloth, smooth transparent linen sized on one side, used for making tracings; tracing-house, a house in which the plans of a building are traced; tracing-instrument, an instrument for copying any outline or plan on the same or a larger or smaller scale; tracing-lace, narrow lace used in an open design; cf. tracing-braid; tracing-linen = tracing-cloth; tracing-machine = tracing-instrument (Cent. Dict., 1891); tracing-paper, (a) transparent paper for copying drawings, etc., by tracing; (b) lithographic transfer paper; tracing-picket, a picket used in siege work to mark lines and angles; tracing-pin, a peg or pin used to mark out lines on the ground in setting out work; tracing-point, (a) a point that traces or draws lines; (b) in Fretwork, a sharp tool used to mark out a design; tracing-staff: see quot.; tracing-thread, in Lace-making, a heavy thread or fillet of fine threads used to form the outline of the pattern; tracing-wheel, a toothed wheel or roulette for marking out patterns.
1399. in York Fabric Rolls (Surtees), 17. In le loge [mason’s work-shop] apud Ebor, in cimiterio, lxix stanexes, j magna kevell, xcvj chisielles ferri…, ij *tracyngbordes.
1906. Daily Chron., 4 Oct., 3/4. The jacket was … elaborately braided with silk *tracing-braid. Ibid. The skirt … with a girdle, braided with tracing-braid to match the jacket.
1842–76. Gwilt, Encycl. Archit. Gloss., *Tracing cloth, a fine white cloth, prepared in a similar way to paper for rendering it transparent.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. 6/2. If ink or colour does not run freely on tracing cloth, mix both with a little ox-gall.
1374–5. in Oliver, Exeter Cath. (1861), 385. Custus nove domus in Calendarhay vocate *‘Trasyng hous.’
1581–2. York Fabric Rolls (Surtees), 118. For xj daies worke on the leades over the tracinge hows, etc., 10s. 8d. [Ibid. (1859), Gloss. 358. Tracinge-hous, the place or room used by the draughtsman.]
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Tracing-instrument, an instrument for copying figures on an enlarged or reduced scale.
1901. Daily News, 13 Feb., 5/1. A very long robe … trimmed with gold lace, some of it what is technically called *‘tracing-lace,’ i.e., arranged in small loops placed alternately hither and thither.
1824. Mech. Mag., 31 Jan., 365/2. An excellent method to make *tracing-paper.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 203/2. The design is … copied on very thin transparent paper, called tracing-paper.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. XIII. 17. To the horizontal arm is fixed the *tracing pencil.
1870. Wessely, Germ.-Eng. Dict., Absteckpfahl … *tracing-picket.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 89. Tracing two Portions of a Circle … by means of a small *Tracing-Pin fixed at the End of the Cord.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 728. Where long, straight, or parallel lines occur, the *tracing point may be guided by a ruler.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 84. A *Tracing-Staff … is a long strait Stick tipt with Iron at the lower End, having the Point triangular…; with this Tracing-Staff you strike out and design all the Figures of a Garden.
Tracing vbl. sb.2: see TRACE v.3
(Here perhaps belong quot. 1874 in prec. 3 b, and tracing-braid, -lace in sense 5 above.)
