trickle

[trik-uhl]

verb (used without object)

trickled, trickling 

1. to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream.

   Tears trickled down her cheeks.

2. to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly.

   The guests trickled out of the room.

verb (used with object)

trickled, trickling 

1. to cause to trickle.

noun

1. a trickling flow or stream.

   Synonyms: drip, seepage, dribble

2. a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding.

   a trickle of visitors throughout the day.

trickle

/ ˈtrɪkəl /

verb

1. to run or cause to run in thin or slow streams

   she trickled the sand through her fingers

2. (intr) to move, go, or pass gradually

   the crowd trickled away

noun

1. a thin, irregular, or slow flow of something

2. the act of trickling

Other Word Forms

• trickling adjective
• trickly adjective
• tricklingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of trickle¹

1325–75; Middle English triklen, trekelen (v.), apparently sandhi variant of strikle, perhaps equivalent to strike (in obsolete sense “flow”) + -le

Word History and Origins

Origin of trickle¹

C14: perhaps of imitative origin

Example Sentences

“Water touches everything in life. The effects of its irreversible decline are bound to trickle into everything.”

From Los Angeles Times

What will happen to their already modest salaries when draconian education cuts trickle down to every state and political loyalty tests are likely to be administered?

From Salon

Information trickled out through the CDC’s communications office, but CDC scientists gave no press briefings and went dark on their closest partners across the country.

From Salon

"Russia is like water: where there are cracks in the cement, it trickles in," says Dr Kathryn Stoner, political scientist at Stanford University.

From BBC

However, on Tuesday the UN warned that the "trickle of aid" entering Gaza was insufficient to "avert widespread starvation".

From BBC

Related Words

• crawl 
• creep 
• dribble 
• flow 
• leak 
• ooze 
• percolate 
• seep 
• stream