Forms: 5–6 trak, 6 tracke, 6– track. [a. OF. trac (1440 in Hatz.-Darm.), traq, F. trac: ulterior derivation uncertain, but generally thought to be from Teutonic. Diez and Scheler would connect it with MLG. and Du. treck, trek draught, drawing, pull, line drawn, etc., f. trecken, trekken to draw, puli, tug, drag, haul (in MDu. rarely tracken): see TRACK v.2
If this be the source, the original sense would appear to have been the line or mark made on the ground by anything hauled or dragged, whence also the mark made or path beaten by the feet of man or beast; the sense-development being parallel to that of TRACE from L. *tractiāre. It is noticeable that the senses of the verbs trace and track are sometimes identical; also that track and tract were often identified in pronunciation and use.]
I. 1. The mark, or series of marks, left by the passage of anything; a trail; a wheel-rut; the wake of a ship; a series of footprints; the scent followed by hounds; spec. in Geol. a series of fossilized footprints of an animal.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. xiv. 435. Myght I fynde the trak of his hors I shold not fayle to fynde that Knyghte.
c. 1500. 3 Kings’ Sons, 30. They came on the trakkys of there enmyes.
c. 1595. Capt. Wyatt, R. Dudley’s Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.), 27. Wee discried the track of theire feet in the woodes by the impression of the sandes.
1685. Cotton, trans. Montaigne (1711), I. xxxviii. 349. Like the Beasts of Chace, who put out the Track at the Entrance into their Den.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Track, a Foot-print, or Foot-step, the rut of a Coach-wheel, the run of a Ship, a Mark that remains of any thing.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, viii. The walls and roof … tapestried with the tracks of snails and slugs.
1842. Act 5 & 6 Vict., c. 79 § 17. Any stage carriage … the bearing of which on the ground shall be less than 4 ft. 6 in. from the centre of the track of the right or off wheel to the centre of the track of the left or near wheel.
1912. Return Brit. Museum, 174. A large slab of tracks from the Palaeozoic rocks of the Alleghany Mts.
† b. The pacing of a horse. Obs. rare–1.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xliii. I hear the track [F. trac] and beating of the enemies horse feet.
c. Zool. The sole of the foot, esp. in birds.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
1911. in Webster.
† 2. fig. = TRACE sb.1 6, 7. Obs.
1652–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., Introd. (1674), 11/2. Of Sabteca … I can find no track in any of the Ancient Authors.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 219. Now there is no track to be seen of any such thing. Ibid., 223. In all this Citie, I found not the least track of Antiquity.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., viii. § 8. To consider the Atmosphere and the exterior Frame and Face of the Globe; if we may find any tracks and footsteps of Wisdom in the Constitution of Them.
1694. Addison, Story of Calisto, 9. No tracks of heaven’s destructive fire remain.
3. A way made or beaten by the feet of men or animals; a path; a rough unmade road.
1643. Cromwell, Lett., 31 July. We … came to the bottom of a steep hill: we could not well get up but by some tracks.
1675. N. Thomas, in I. Mather, K. Philip’s War (1862), 231. We took notice that an Indian track, newly made, wheeled about from west to South.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, i. The road was only a slight track upon the grass.
1832. Act 2 & 3 Will. IV., c. 64. Sched. O. 48. The point at which the same [road] meets the mountain track from Dowlais to Quakers Yard.
1883. W. Gardner, in Science Gossip, May, 97. The southern corner is crossed by a mountain track running from Trefriw to Capel Curig.
fig. 1656. Cowley, To Sir W. Davenant, 36. Thy Fancy like a Flame its way does make, And leave bright Tracks for following Pens to take.
4. A line of travel, passage, or motion; the actual course or route followed (which need not be any beaten or visible path, or leave any traces, as the path of a ship, a bird in the air, a comet).
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent, 287. This place … as also the whole track of their iourney (remaining euer after a greene pathe) the Towne dwellers were wont to shew.
1671. Milton, P. R., I. 189. The better to converse With solitude, till far from track of men.
1681. Nevile, Plato Rediv., 79. Like Horses who know their Track well enough, without considering East or West, or what business they go about.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. x. 240. To give a better idea of the track which they hold in this navigation, I have … laid down the particular route … in … this chart.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxiv. 131. We were just in the track of the tremendous hurricane of 1830.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., iii. (1856), 24. The ferry-boats and steamers came out of their track to salute us in the bay.
fig. 1565. T. Stapleton, Fortr. Faith, 126. After the tracke of Caluins trace.
b. The course of a nerve or blood-vessel, or the like; the course of a wound.
1807–26. S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 444. All the surfaces, in contact with each other, and surrounding the track of the wound, become generally so intimately connected together.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 668. The whole track of the intestinal tube, as well as the (so-called) hepatic viscus, is covered internally with vibratile cilia.
c. (?) A long narrow stretch (of light). (But both examples may belong properly to TRACT sb.3: cf. branch II.)
1693. Congreve, To Dryden, in D.’s Persius, 400. In their room bright Tracks of Light are seen.
1757. Gray, Bard, 103. In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, They melt, they vanish from my eyes.
5. fig. a. A course of action or conduct; a method of proceeding; ‘way,’ ‘path.’ The beaten track, the ordinary (quasi well-worn) way.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 242. They … propound unto us the right way, and not one usually beaten track onely.
1658–9. in Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 54. You are in a track, and cannot go back or forwards.
1714. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. (1887), I. 96. The world never believes it possible for people to act out of the common track.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., III. 332. To … Pace the Round Eternal?… To beat and beat The beaten Track?
1785. G. A. Bellamy, Apology, II. 166. You see me now entered into a new track of life.
1836. Black Rock (NY) Advocate, 30 Dec., 3/3/. The ‘tide of emigration’ is now fairly frozen up, and thus forced off the beaten track, at least until next spring.
1864. Skeat, Uhland’s Poems, 56. Would ye have me wish to wander From the tracks of daily care?
1906. Kropotkin, Mem. Rev. (1908), IV. viii. 254. Austria and Hungary followed in the same track.
b. A train or sequence of events, thoughts, etc.
1681. J. Owen, Spiritual Mindedness, Wks. 1852, VII. 307. A continual track of fruitless impertinent thoughts about their own concerns.
1693. Dryden, Disc. Orig. & Progr. Sat., Ess. (ed. Ker), II. 29. When he is got into a track of Scripture.
1725. Watts, Logic, IV. i. § 2. In writing the Lives of Men, which is called Biography, some Authors follow the Track of their Years.
1793. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 199. My pen goes in the track of my thoughts.
1827. R. Pollok, Course T., X. ad fin. Thus have I sung beyond thy first request, Rolling my numbers o’er the track of man, The world at dawn, at mid-day, and decline.
6. A path made or laid down for a special purpose; spec. a. (now U.S.) A continuous line of a pair of rails and the space between them, on which railway vehicles travel: commonly called in Great Britain a or the line, and in some connections the rails. (Cf. TRACKAGE2.) Also, an iron path or pair of rails that a carriage in a machine or a gun-chassis traverses. Off the track, off the line or rails, derailed; also fig.
1805. Rees, Cycl., VI. s.v. Canal, Surrey Iron Rail-Way…. The width of each track is about 51/2 feet, the waggons carry about 31/4 tons each…. Crossing rails are used at every passing-place or point where waggons are to pass out of one track of rails into another.
a. 1824. [see RAILWAY 3].
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), Track, the line of a railroad, or rather between the rails. ‘A man walking on the track was run over and killed.’
1875. Lowell, Spenser, Prose Wks. 1890, IV. 277. A series of jolts and jars, proving that the language had run off the track.
1894. Times, 14 July, 7/1. The switch-men [in U.S.] … control the yards, the making up of the trains, and the freedom of the tracks.
b. A course prepared or laid out for racing, or the like: often in comb., as cinder-, race-, racing-, running-track.
1837. Long-Island Star, 2 Nov., 2/4. The running track [at Hoboken, NJ] between the Judges’ and Public Stands, is 80 feet in width; on the backside it is 40 feet.
1887. Field, 20 Aug., 328/2. The six-lap grass track on which the above sports were held.
1912. Throne, 7 Aug., 228/1. The … Italian sprinter Giongo … should … be seen frequently on the track at Metropolitan meetings.
7. Her. A longitudinal division of an ordinary or sub-ordinary, or in the representation of certain furs.
1868. Cussans, Her., iii. 53. The Furs Vair, Countervair, Potent, and Counterpotent…. They are usually represented as of four rows, heraldically termed Tracks. Ibid., iv. (1882), 67. A Bordure or other Ordinary composed of Metal and Colour alternately, is termed Compony…. If there be two Tracks, it is then said to be Counter-Compony.
8. [from TRACK v.1] The action of tracking; the pursuit of a criminal or fugitive.
[1542–3: see TRACT sb.3 10 b.]
1617. Carte Papers, LXII. 438. The Track shalbee vndertaken within foure and twenty howres, after the goodes have bin stolne,… that the Inhabitants of that place, may have time to put the track forwardes.
9. Phrases. In one’s tracks (U.S.), on the spot where one is at the moment; instantly, immediately. On the track (of), in pursuit of; also, having a trace of or clue to. To cover (up) a person’s tracks, to conceal or screen his motions or measures. To keep track, to follow or grasp the course, progress, or sequence of; to keep account of; so to lose track of. To make (take) tracks (for), to make off, to make for; to go off quickly (orig. U.S.).
1835. The Tennessean, 23 Jan., 3/3. He [Martin Van Buren] has covered up his tracks with the ingenuity and cunning of an Indian.
1835–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 30. I’d a made him make tracks, I guess.
1843. R. Carlton, New Purchase, xvii. I. 130. The rifle was fired … and he fell dead in his tracks.
1866. Lowell, Biglow P., II. Introd., Poems 1890, II. 189. In his tracks for immediately has acquired an American accent, and passes where he can for a native.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., ii. 49. Not on the false track of myths, artificially elaborated.
1878. Masque Poets, 244. Whatever else he lacks, He has the art of covering up his tracks.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols (1884), 251. The noise of the two crowds … made it difficult to keep track of what was going on.
1886. Emma Marshall, Tower on Cliff, xii. The men are on the track.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIII. 387/1. Day after day passes in precisely the same manner…, until one loses all track of the days of the week.
1902. Munsey’s Mag., XXVI. 569/1. Theater-goers who have kept close track of the dramatic tastes of New York and London.
II. Used by confusion in senses of TRACT sb.3
(Tract is very commonly pronounced dial. (træk), and some of the senses are identical with those of track.)
† 10. A feature, lineament, trait; TRACT sb.3 7. Sc. Obs. rare.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. xiii. 135. And all elike wympillit and cled thir trakis With eddris thrawin, and haris full of snakis.
1808–18. Jamieson, Track, feature, lineament.
11. An extent of land; also, a space of time, a period; also, † a sequence or succession of actions or events (obs.); cf. TRACT sb.3 1 c, 2, 3.
1687. Burnet, Trav., iii. (1750), 166. All the way to Florence this Track of Hills continues, tho’ there are several Bottoms.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 43. Their conquest or seizure of any track of country.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. lxii. 268. Very large tracks, of two or three thousand acres.
1796. H. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. 132. The track of land inundated was lower than the Ocean.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., iii. 91. During a much longer track of time.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. I. 127. If a track of dry weather sets in.
1893, 1901. in Eng. Dial. Dict. (of weather).
1896. W. B. Wildman, Hist. Sherborne, i. 1. A track of country won for England from the West-Welsh.
† 12. An attraction, enticement; = TRACT sb.3 4. Obs. rare–1.
1673. O. Walker, Educ., i. 6. Since we find great tracks and encouragements in the way of pleasure.
III. 13. attrib. and Comb., as track-chart, -cutting, -side; in sense 6 a (mainly U.S.), track-cleaner, construction, elevation, material; in 6 b, track athlete, athletics, event, -measuring, meeting, -racing sb. and adj., record; track-brake, a railway brake that acts by pressure directly against the rail; also, a device consisting of rails with curved ends, kept in position alongside the ordinary rails by springs, which by friction automatically retards a vehicle passing over them by compressing the flanges of the wheels; track-channeler, in quarrying, a groove-cutting tool mounted on a rail truck (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); track-chisel, a plate-layer’s hammer with a flat cutting peen (ibid.); track-clearer, a cross-bar carried immediately in front of the wheels of a locomotive or tram-car to push obstructions off the rails; also, a cow-catcher or snow-sweeper fixed in front of a locomotive; also, a wedge-shaped board fixed at the outer end of the cutter-bar of a reaping machine, which directs the swath to the cutters and leaves a clear track for the next passage of the machine; track-edge, the abrupt edge of a millstone furrow; track-harness (U.S.), light harness for trotting-races (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); track-hound, a hound capable of following a track, a sleuth-hound; track-iron, Golf: see quot. 1908 and IRON sb. 4 e; track-layer, a man employed in laying or repairing a railway track, a plate-layer; also, a railway truck equipped with machinery for laying rails; so track-laying sb. and adj.; track-leveller, a railway truck having heavy projecting wings or shares that can be raised or lowered so as to level the ballast on a railway line as it is drawn along (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); track-lifter, a wheeled frame or truck with powerful jaws for grasping the rails, and mechanism for getting a lifting purchase against the ground; used in levelling a railway line (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); track-line, the line of a (former) track or path: see quot. 1889; track-man, a workman employed in the construction or maintenance of a railway or tram-way; track-master, one who is responsible for the inspection and repair of a section of railway track (Cent. Dict., 1891); track-mile, a mile of ‘track’ or single line; hence track-mileage; track-rail, the rail on which the wheels run, as distinct from a guide-rail or the like; track-raiser, a jack for lifting sunken rails, a track-lifter; track-scale, a weigh-bridge for railway vehicles (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); track-scraper, a snow-scraper attached to a railway car for clearing the line (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); track-shoe, a track-brake shoe; track-sprinkler: see quot.; track-walker, a man employed to walk along and examine a certain length of railway track regularly; so track-walking; track-work, (a) the construction of a railway track or line; (b) action or use on a racing track. Also TRACKWAY.
1888. Pall Mall G., 27 Aug., 14/1. The baseball and *track athletes graduated 34 per cent. of their number…. In physical development … the crew men coming first, the baseball players next, and track athletes last.
1890. W. Camp, in Century Mag., June, 204/2. The … games … generally classed under the term *‘track athletics’ are walking, running, jumping, bicycling, pole vaulting, throwing of weights, and tug-of-war contests.
1903. Science Abstracts, VI. § B. 57. The Westinghouse-Newell *track brake is described. In this an electromagnet, excited by the motors acting as generators, grips the rail with a pressure which may reach two tons.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 29 Oct., 7/2. It seems to Colonel Yorke that the track brake can at its best only be regarded as a supplementary to the wheel brakes.
1900. Daily News, 12 Nov., 8/5. With a view to minimising the amount of water used a large number of *track cleaners were employed [on the tramways].
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Track-clearer, (1) (Railway.) (a) A cow-catcher…. (b) A track-sweeper to remove snow. (2) (Harvesting.) A triangular frame on the outer end of the cutter-bar of a mowing or reaping machine [etc.].
1890. Goldfields of Victoria, 27. *Track-cutting … enables parties to proceed into the jungle country, which would otherwise be unknown.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v. Furrow, The steep edge of the furrow [in a millstone] is called the *track-edge; the more inclined edge is called the feather-edge.
1864. Boston Even. Transcript, 23 Dec., 2/2. The soldiers and officers are determined that no more flying fugitives, white men or negroes, shall be followed by *track-hounds that come within reach of their powder and ball.
1888. Century Mag., May, 42/2. Intending to return on the morrow with a good track hound.
1883. Standard, 16 Nov., 5/2. He … is ready with … the *track-iron [at golf].
1908. Daily Chron., 3 Aug., 2/4. A collection of ‘track’ irons, round-headed with concave face, used fifty or sixty years ago to get the ball out of the cart tracks.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Track-layer, a carriage provided with apparatus for placing the rails in their proper positions … as the machine advances.
1888. Pall Mall G., 2 Nov., 7/2. The Provincial tracklayers by a ruse have got a locomotive across the Canadian Pacific Company’s line, and are now carrying rails across and laying a new track to the north of that line.
1909. Lightkeeper, June, 14/2. The track-layer … is useful in making ‘skid-roads,’ over which the heavy logs are hauled.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., *Track-laying machine.
1900. Engineering Mag., XIX. 797/2. Tracklaying by Machinery on the Canadian Pacific Ry.
1848. S. Rowe, Peramb. Dartmoor, 47. Greatly similar … are the *Tracklines, or Boundary Banks, which are invariably observed in connexion with aboriginal dwellings and sepulchral remains.
1889. Page, Explor. Dartmoor, iii. 43. Oftentimes low banks of earth and stone are observed among the traces of ancient settlements. These are tracklines.
1881. Chicago Times, 30 April. *Track men and mechanics now in employment on the road.
1893. Labour Commission Gloss., Trackmen, men who clean the groove of tramway rails with scoops, and when necessary sand or salt the track between the metals.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 18 June, 8/3. The engineers will … refuse to run trains over a system not properly examined by trackmen.
1880. P. L. Sclater, Jacamars & Puff-birds, 75. In 1861 Mr. James M‘Leannan, then *track-master of Lion-hill station on the Panama Railway, began to explore the dense tropical forests surrounding his abode.
1909. Q. Rev., Oct., 354 The actual *track-mileage of British railways is approximately 53,000 miles.
1896. Daily News, 28 Dec., 5/2. One of the earliest and most notable of *track-racing cyclists.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Track-rail.
1902. Daily Chron., 18 Oct., 6/7. The tender for the supply of track rails and other accessories.
1908. Daily Chron., 6 May, 5/2. Witness admitted that one of the magnetic *track shoes was useless.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, i. He … lighted on a big boulder under a birch by the *trackside.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), *Track-sprinkler, a contrivance for sprinkling railroad tracks, in order to lay the dust.
1890. Gildersleeve, Ess. & Stud., 127. The solitary *track-walker, who turns his lantern on every inch of the road.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 14 April, 6/3. The usual precautions were taken…, including a track-walker at every mile on the line.
1907. Daily Chron., 15 July, 6/6. The total cost of the *track work from Aldgate to Bow is estimated at about £66,000, which works out at about £11,000 a mile of single track.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 23 Feb., 4/2. To encourage young riders to come … and learn the use of their machines for track-work.
