Meanings
plural trawls
- A long fishing line having many short lines bearing hooks attached to it; a setline.
- An exhaustive search.
I embarked on a trawl through my uncle's papers in search of his missing will.
present singular third person trawls · participle present trawling · participle past trawled · past trawled
- ambitransitiveTo take (fish or other marine animals) with a trawl.
The fisherman went out to trawl the deep sea for shrimp.
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
nouna long fishing line with many shorter lines and hooks attached to it (usually suspended between buoys)
nouna conical fishnet dragged through the water at great depths
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latintragula“dragnet”
- Middle Dutchtraghelen
- Dutchtragelen“to pull with a towline, trawl”
- Englishtrawl
16th century, borrowed from Dutch tragelen (“to pull with a towline, trawl”), from Middle Dutch traghelen, from traghel (“dragnet”) (presumably from Latin tragula (“dragnet”)), and as such root-cognate with English drag and dray.
More words from Dutch, Middle Dutch, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian траля
- траля (tralja)To fish with a trawl
Finnish troolata
- troolataTo fish with a trawl
French chaluter, passer au peigne fin
- chaluterTo fish with a trawl
- passer au peigne finTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
German durchforsten
- durchforstenTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
Indonesian memukat, menjaring
- memukatTo fish with a trawl
- menjaringTo fish with a trawl
Italian sciabicare
- sciabicareTo fish with a trawl
Polish łowić włokiem, złowić włokiem
- łowić włokiemTo fish with a trawl
- złowić włokiemTo fish with a trawl
- wyszukiwaćTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
- wyszukaćTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
Russian тра́лить, прочёсывать
- тра́лить (trálitʹ)To fish with a trawl
- прочёсывать (pročósyvatʹ)To make an exhaustive search within a defined area
Spanish hacer pescar arrastrera, pescar con red barredera
- hacer pescar arrastreraTo fish with a trawl
- pescar con red barrederaTo fish with a trawl
- pescar arrastreramenteTo fish with a trawl
- pescar al arrastreTo fish with a trawl
- rastrearTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
- esculcarTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
- escurcarTo make an exhaustive search within a defined area
Swedish tråla
- trålaTo fish with a trawl
Tagalog mamalakaya
- mamalakayaTo fish with a trawl
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with trawl
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
trawl. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trawl
“trawl.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trawl. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trawl,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trawl.
Source: trawl on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.