Also 3–7 trott, 5–6 trotte, 5–7 trote. [a. F. trot (12th c. in Godef., Compl.), verbal sb. of trotter to TROT.]
I. 1. A gait of a quadruped, originally of a horse, between walking and running, in which the legs move in diagonal pairs almost together, so that in a slow trot there is always one foot at least on the ground, but in a fast trot one pair leaves the ground before the other reaches it, all four feet being thus momentarily off the ground at once; hence applied to a similar gait of a man (or other biped), between a walk and a run.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15872 (Cott.). His [Christ’s] hend þai band and ledd him forth, A-trott and noght þe pas [2 MSS. a-pas, a pas].
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 976. Trynande ay a hyȝe trot þat torne neuer dorsten.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 22. His hat heeng at his bak doun by a laas For he hadde riden moore than trot [v.rr. trote, trotte] or paas.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 3100, in Macro Plays, 169. Now dagge we hens a dogge trot.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. 957. Redouble gan her nurse Her steppes, forth on an aged womans trot.
1590. Barwick, Disc. Weapons, 9 b. They retired a soft trote: their enemies … made after them with more speed.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 35. Our Chariot drawn by 2 Buffolls who by practise are nimble in their trot.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. Index s.v., A good Trot may be judged of by the Ear.
1755. Johnson, Trot, the jolting high pace of a horse.
1780. Mirror, No. 92. A smart young man … passed by in his carriage at a brisk trot.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, v. His [a fox’s] drooping brush, his soiled appearance, and jaded trot, proclaimed his fate impending.
1835. Alison, Hist. Europe (1849–50), V. xxviii. § 43. 124. The pontoons arrived at a quick trot, from Dietikon.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 52. Their pace is the peculiar ‘paso Castellano,’ which is something more than a walk and less than a trot.
† b. An action of trotting; a journey or expedition on horseback. Obs.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1850), I. 186. The barronis … rydis fra Turreff to New Abirdein,… Thay plunder the laird of Kermok…. The covenanteris, heiring of this trot of Turref … began to hyde thair goodis.
1676. Cotton, Angler, II. ii. 22. I’le make as bold with your meat; for the Trot has got me a good stomach.
c. The sound of a horse, etc., trotting.
1858. Capern, Ball. & Songs (1859), 138. The lime-team’s trot, And milkmaid’s carol … Are the chief sounds.
1882. ‘Ouida,’ In Maremma, I. 6. The trot of the chargers and the clash of the steel had passed into silence.
d. transf. and fig. On the trot, continually moving without intervals for rest; on the go.
a. 1625. Fletcher & Mass., Custom of Country, IV. iv. Nor am I able to endure it longer,… I am at my trot already.
1646. Jenkyn, Remora, 28. Shall we go a dull Asses trot heavenward?
1697. Dryden, Virg., Ded. (1721), I. 20. The Virtuoso’s Saddle, which will be sure to amble, when the World is upon the hardest Trott.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall (1823), I. xiv. 103. One of those who eat and growl, and keep the waiter on the trot.
1892. G. Meredith, Poet. Wks. (1912), 454. Away on the trot of thy servitude start.
2. A trotting-race. rare.
1891. Auckland Star, 1 Oct., 8/6. Spring Meeting…. Handicap Maiden Trot, of 40sovs; second horse to receive 5sovs from stakes…. Selling Trot…. Pony Trot Handicap.
1893. Scott. Leader, 12 June, 1. Grand Handicap Trot—First, £10; Second, £3; Third, £2.
3. † Irish trot (obs.), Turkey trot, names of dances. Also † shake a trot (Sc. obs.).
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 66. In the fyrst, thai dancit al cristyn mennis dance, the north of scotland, huntis vp,… schaik a trot.
1652. News fr. Lowe-Countr., 7. The Scottish Jigg, the Irish Trot.
4. A toddling child; also, a small or young animal. colloq. Hence Trottie, a little toddling child.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, x. Ethel romped with the little children—the rosy little trots—and took them on her knees, and told them a thousand stories.
1895. Skelton, Table-Talk, iv. 72. Black, hairy little trots … with their big bills and their big feet.
1905. Contemp. Rev., July, 62. A practising school is maintained, partly of grave little trots from outside and partly of little boarders.
5. U.S. A literal translation of a text used by students; a ‘crib.’ Cf. HORSE sb. 13, PONY sb. 3. (College slang.)
1891. in Cent. Dict.
II. 6. Fishing. (Perhaps a different word: cf. TRAT.) A long-line lightly anchored or buoyed, with baited hooks hung by short lines or snoods a few feet apart; a trawl-line; also called a trot-line; also, each of the short lines attached to this.
1858. [see trot-line in 7].
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 10. Floating Trots and Spillers.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 18 Jan., 6/2. A ‘trot’ is a line some twenty yards long.
1886. R. C. Leslie, Sea-painter’s Log, x. 199. Much longer lines than the trots just described are used for flounders.
III. 7. attrib. and Comb. trot-line = sense 6; trot-rope, a rope securely pegged down at each end, on which runs a sliding ring to which a horse is tethered, enabling him to graze a strip the length of the rope (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909).
1858. in A. E. Lee, Hist. Columbus, Ohio (1892), I. 146. Father went down to the river to examine a trotline.
