trickle

Originally of tears; from strickle, frequentative of to strike, by elision (probably because tears trickle is easier to pronounce than tears strickle).

For other similar cases of incorrect division, see also apron, daffodil, newt, nickname, orange, umpire.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪkəl/
• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

trickle (plural trickles)

1. A very thin river.

   The brook had shrunk to a mere trickle.

2. A very thin flow; the act of trickling.

   The tap of the washbasin in my bedroom is leaking and the trickle drives me mad at night.

   • James Bryce

     The streams that run south and east from the mountains to the coast are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud.

trickle (third-person singular simple present trickles, present participle trickling, simple past and past participle trickled)

Water is trickling down this boy's face.

1. (transitive) to pour a liquid in a very thin stream, or so that drops fall continuously.

   The doctor trickled some iodine on the wound.

2. (intransitive) to flow in a very thin stream or drop continuously.

   Here the water just trickles along, but later it becomes a torrent.

   The film was so bad that people trickled out of the cinema before its end.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress.

3. (intransitive) To move or roll slowly.
   • 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC‎:

     Their only shot of the first period was a long-range strike from top-scorer Ebanks-Blake which trickled tamely wide.

• trickle truth

• tickler