track

A mark left by something that has passed along.

Noun

  1. A mark left by something that has passed along.
    • Follow the track of the ship.
    • Can you see any tracks in the snow?

    Synonyms: trace trail wake

  2. A mark or impression left by the foot, either of man or animal.
    • The fox tracks were still visible in the snow.

    Synonyms: footprint impression

  3. The entire lower surface of the foot; said of birds, etc.
  4. A road or other similar beaten path.
    • Follow the track for a hundred metres.

    Synonyms: path road way

  5. Physical course; way.
    • Astronomers predicted the track of the comet.

    Synonyms: course path trajectory way

  6. A path or course laid out for a race, for exercise, etc.
    • The athletes ran round the track.
    • The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs....

    Synonyms: course racetrack

  7. The direction and progress of someone or something; path.
    • You cannot simply “get” your child back on track; you and others can only help your child with that task. - 2009, Kenneth H. Talan, Help Your Child Or Teen Get Back on Track, →ISBN:
    • My track record was enough proof that I couldn't use women for medicinal purposes, and even my attempts at casual relationships were not adequate enough to even temporarily release the poisons inside me. - 2010, Randall...
  8. The way or rails along which a train moves.
    • They briefly closed the railway to remove debris found on the track.

    Synonyms: rails railway train tracks tracks

  9. A tract or area, such as of land.

    Synonyms: area parcel region tract

  10. The street, as a prostitute's place of work.
    • A real pimp is a gentleman, but these are pimps in gorilla suits. They hang around pimps, they have hoes on the track working for them, they may even look like pimps, but they are straight simps. - 2012, Pimpin' Ken,...
    • After putting Tonya Down on the track, we headed to this club called the Players Club. - 2012, Paul D. Jones, Twilight Nights: The Trials and Tribulations of the Game, page 130:
  11. Awareness of something, especially when arising from close monitoring.
    • You will need to keep track of meetings with your lawyer and court deadlines. - 2006, James J. Gross, Michael F. Callahan, Money and Divorce: The First 90 Days and After, →ISBN, page 24:
    • We have to formulate what we want, be so concentrated on it, so focused on it, and so aware of it that we lose track of ourselves, we lose track of time, we lose track of our identity. - 2012, Steven Gurgevich, Joy...
  12. The distance between two opposite wheels on a same axletree.

    Synonyms: track width

Origin

From Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac (“track of horses, trail, trace”), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic source, either Old Norse traðk ("a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (“a track; path; tread”), Faroese traðk (“track; tracks”), Norwegian tråkke (“to trample”)) or from Middle Dutch trec, *trac, treck ("line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)), German Low German Treck (“a draught; movement; passage; flow”). See tread, trek.

Forms

tracks

Hyponyms

album track beaten track bush track cycle track double track fast track hag track Hayashi track Henyey track hidden track lose track mommy track panhandle track racetrack railroad track railway track reserved track running track side track sidetrack slab track team track test track title track

Related

path trail

Derived

8-track Amtrak art track audiotrack backing track backtrack belt track betrack biotrack buzz track Cascio tracks click track continuous track crawler track crosstrack detrack dirt track diss track double-track doubletrack down the track dreaming track dreamtime track exercise track

Verb

  1. To continue over time.
    • We will track the raven population over the next six months.

    1. (transitive) To observe the (measured) state of a person or object over time.

    2. (transitive) To monitor the movement of a person or object.

      • Agent Miles has been tracking the terrorist since Madrid.
      • I always had a suspicion that Calico, with his blend of simple faith and gipsy blood, had violated a temple, or looted a shrine, to save his son's life, and that the guardians of the relic tracked him and revenged the...
      • Vlad says there is an American drone the Russians can't track. He wants a lot more of those. - 2022 May 5, Erin Burnett, 3:37 from the start, in See how gamers are outwitting and helping to kill Russian soldiers, CNN,...

    3. (transitive) To match the movement or change of a person or object.

      • My height tracks my father's at my age, so I might end up as tall as him.

    4. (transitive or intransitive, of a camera) To travel so that a moving object remains in shot.

      • The camera tracked the ball even as the field of play moved back and forth, keeping the action in shot the entire time.

    5. (intransitive, chiefly of a storm) To move.

      • The hurricane tracked further west than expected.

    6. (transitive) To traverse; to move across.

      • I've swept o'er the mountain, the forest and fell, / I've played on the rock where the wild chamois dwell; / I have tracked the desert so dreary and rude, / Through the pathless depths of its solitude; […] - 1837,...

    7. (transitive) To tow.

    8. (intransitive) To exhibit good cognitive function.

      • Is the patient tracking? Does he know where he is?
      • Bess already knew about the painkillers and alcohol not mixing well.... "I wasn't tracking very well." - 2004, Catherine Anderson, Blue Skies, Penguin, →ISBN, page 39:
      • My mother in the past couple of days has started to really get confused and lose her train of thought easily.... She isn't tracking very well. - 2010 October 1, "karimitch" (username), "Memory Loss - Pancreatic Cancer...
  2. To follow the tracks of.
    • My uncle spent all day tracking the deer, whose hoofprints were clear in the mud.
  3. To discover the location of a person or object by following traces.
    • I tracked Joe to his friend's bedroom, where he had spent the night.
    • "She could be at any hospital...she could be ill. It's not clear whether she has fled," he told reporters. "Yingluck has many homes and many cars. It is difficult to track her." - 2017 August 25, Aukkarapon Niyomyat &...
  4. To make tracks on or to leave in the form of tracks.
    • In winter, my cat tracks mud all over the house.
  5. To create a musical recording (a track).
    • Lil Kyle is gonna track with that DJ next week.

    1. (computing, transitive or intransitive) To create music using tracker software.

      • At the time, tracking chiptunes (i.e. using trackers) was the fundamental method of chipmusic-making. - 2018, Dafni Tragaki, Made in Greece: Studies in Popular Music:
  6. To make sense; to be consistent with known information
    • Vitron isn't hiding anything. The oil is there, the books are open, everything tracks. - 1988, “The Rifle”, in Dynasty, season 8, episode 15:
    • Before he took off, our guy went online... to transfer all his personal accounts into his checking account. CDs, money market funds, everything. That tracks. According to Nick, he was trying to sell the dry cleaners. -...
    • There was an electrical storm in the center of this blizzard, Ben. It's extremely rare, but it can happen. Dark lightning? I can't prove it, but it tracks. - 2019, “Cleared for Approach”, in Manifest, season 1, episode...
  7. To separate into educational tracks, each of which teaches to a different level of ability.
    • Most working class kids are purposely "tracked" through schools, kept uninformed about scholarships and remedial education/vocation programs and shepherded into dead-end jobs. - 1990 February 4, Leonard Tirado,...

Forms

tracks tracking tracked

Synonyms

monitor follow find locate trace track down make sense check out

Related

tracker

Derived

double-track slab-track track down tracking shot track with