tracing

trace around (something)

To drawn an outline around something that is resting on or pressed against a flat surface. If you put your hand on the paper and trace around it with a pencil, it kind of looks like a turkey! Murder detectives used to trace around victims' bodies with chalk, though the practice is almost entirely relegated to pop culture these days.
See also: around, trace

trace back

1. To derive or originate from someone, something, or some place. The powerful corporation traces back nearly 200 years to a small manufacturing company in New York City. Investigators discovered that the drug money traced back to a US senator.
2. To discover the point of origin of someone or something by following a trail of information or series of events backward. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "trace" and "back." We were able to trace the assassination attempt back to a cartel in Mexico. Make sure you only pay in cash, as the police can trace back exactly where and when you use your card.
See also: back, trace

trace out

1. To trace, sketch, or delineate the outline of something. A noun or pronoun can be used between "trace" and "out." He traced out the directions to the cabin on the back of a napkin for me. I'm having a hard time visualizing what you mean. Why don't you trace it out on the whiteboard for us?
2. To develop, determine, or delineate something, such as a pattern or course of events, gradually over a period of time. A noun or pronoun can be used between "trace" and "out." The investigation traced out a pattern of corruption and abuse of power going all the way to the top of the administration. The film portrays the legendary actor's rise to fame, tracing it out from his humble beginnings to
See also: out, trace

trace over (something)

To copy an image by drawing on a transparent or translucent piece of paper placed on top of it. When I was a kid, I loved tracing over pictures of my favorite cartoon characters. I thought he had drawn an incredible portrait of me, but he had just traced over a photograph he'd printed out.
See also: over, trace
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

trace back

v.
1. To ascertain the successive stages in the development or progress of something by reasoning backward from an effect to a cause: We traced our family history back 200 years. Skepticism as a philosophical movement can be traced back to Sextus Empiricus.
2. To derive from something or someone: The counterfeit drugs traced back to an American expatriate. Many English words trace back to Greek or Latin.
See also: back, trace

trace out

v.
1. To sketch or delineate something: I laid out the map and traced out the path to the park.
2. To delineate some pattern or development over time: The results traced out an interesting pattern of sudden fluctuations every three months. The biographer traced out the politician's rise to power.
3. To ascertain something by reconstructing a series of events: The police traced out the Internet cafe as the place where the virus was launched. The motive for the crime was so unusual that no one could trace it out.
See also: out, trace
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • find way around
  • around (one's) ears
  • get (someone) around the table
  • get around the table
  • gaze around at (someone or something)
  • feel around
  • feel around (for someone or something)
  • crowd around
  • crowd around (someone or something)
  • forage
References in periodicals archive
In summary, TEI acknowledges that the regulation writer's task is a difficult one - crafting a rule that hews to Congress's purpose in repealing General Utilities while steering taxpayers and the IRS between the Scylla of a draconian loss disallowance rule and the Charybdis of an unnecessarily onerous tracing rule.
Supplemental comments on loss disallowance regulations
The preamble to the revised regulations avers that the government would invariably suffer if the taxpayer were permitted to elect tracing, on the ground that the election would be made only when advantageous to the taxpayer.
Comments on revised loss disallowance regulations (T.D. 8294 and CO-93-90) January 23 1991
BEcause kelp's carbon isotope signature differs enough from that of phytoplankton to distinguish the two, carbon isotope tracing could verify kelp's contribution to the food chain -- if researchers could find a coastal study site with no land plants nearby to confuse the issue.
Food chains: the carbon link; borrowing a technique from geochemistry, ecologists move from guesses to numbers
The report provides extensive analysis of the electric heat tracing systems market trends and market shares from 2016 to 2025 to identify opportunities and industry development
Electric heat tracing systems market Size, Share, Trends and Future Growth Predictions and forecast
But not everyone has accepted tracing. One challenge notes that we do not need tracing to blame culpably incapacitated agents.
Resisting tracing's siren song
A comparison of molecular technologies and genomotyping for tracing and strain characterisation of Campylobacter isolates 13.
Tracing pathogens in th food Chain
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), conducted a public meeting regarding product tracing systems for food intended for humans and animals.
FDA and FSIS call public meeting on food traceability issues
First, variable decelerations must be totally absent for an FHR tracing to be categorized as category I, in other words, normal.
Guidelines for monitoring fetal heart rate revised
Recent headlines about tainted food and recalls--be it spinach, beef or whatever's next--reinforce the importance of quick, accurate and reliable procedures for tracking and tracing raw materials to finished goods to the retailer and everything in between.
The importance of lot trace functionality
Collections and skip tracing are much like those hands.
A blueprint for a successful skip trace department