[f. TRAIL v.1 + -ING2.]
1. That trails (almost always in intr. sense); dragging or dragged behind, drifting along, hanging from something, etc.: see TRAIL v.1
13[?]. in Rel. Ant., II. 15. Ne be þi winpil nevere so jelu ne so stroutende, Ne þi faire tail so long ne so trailende.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle, IV. xxxvi. (Caxton, 1483), 84. A traylyng gowne of twelue yerdes wide solempnly dagged with huge bagge sleues.
1601. Markham, Mary Magd. Lament., Pref. 70. [She] made a towell of her trayling haires.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 56. The trailing cloud [of tobacco-smoke] Streams far behind him, scenting all the air.
1858. G. Macdonald, Phantastes (1878), II. xix. 109. Walking with a … somewhat trailing and stumbling step.
b. Of a plant, or a branch, stem, or shoot of a plant: see TRAIL v.1 5.
1698. Phil. Trans., XX. 468. Stalks, round and most commonly upright, not square nor trayling.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 161. The right sort hath long Stalks and trailing Branches.
1877–84. F. E. Hulme, Wild Fl., p. vi. Branches long, very trailing, slender; hooked prickles.
2. In specific technical applications. a. Trailing wheel, a wheel to which the motive force is not directly applied (opp. to driving-wheel), as one of the hinder wheels of a locomotive, or the rear wheel of a front-driving bicycle. Also applied to parts connected with this, as trailing axle, spring; so trailing-weight, that part of the weight of a locomotive that rests upon the trailing-wheels.
1849–50. Weale, Dict. Terms, Trailing springs, the springs fixed on the axle-boxes of the trailing wheels of a locomotive engine. Ibid., Trailing wheels.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Trailing-axle, an axle behind the driving-axle in British locomotives.
1904. Daily Chron., 2 Feb., 6/6. Two pairs of coupled driving-wheels; then a single pair of trailing-wheels placed behind the fire-box.
b. Trailing points, on a railway, points directed away from a coming train (opp. to facing points). Trailing horns in a dynamo-electric machine: see quot. 1902.
1889. G. Findlay, Eng. Railway, 79. Trailing points … at a distance of 220 yards from the cabin.
1902. Sloane, Stand. Electr. Dict., Following Horns, in dynamo-electric machines, the projecting ends of the pole pieces towards which the outer uncovered perimeter of the armature turns…. The leading horns are those away from which the armature rotates…. Synonym—Trailing Horns.
1909. Cent. Dict. Supp., s.v. Switch, Trailing-point switch, in railroading,… contrasted with facing-point switch.
Hence Trailingly adv.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., IV. 65. Then is their sound heard heauier, and trailingly they hum.
1831. Blackw. Mag., XXX. 476. One of them … hangs trailingly along the mossy greensward.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, etc. 59. Green vine-branches trailingly inclined.
