English
track
Etymology

From Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac, of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation Noun

track (plural tracks)

  1. A mark left by something that has passed along.
    Synonyms: trace, trail, wake
    Follow the track of the ship.
    Can you see any tracks in the snow?
  2. A mark or impression left by the foot, either of man or animal.
    Synonyms: footprint, impression
    The fox tracks were still visible in the snow.
  3. The entire lower surface of the foot; said of birds, etc.
  4. A road or other similar beaten path.
    Synonyms: path, road, way
    Follow the track for a hundred metres.
  5. Physical course; way.
    Synonyms: course, path, trajectory, way
    Astronomers predicted the track of the comet.
  6. A path or course laid out for a race, for exercise, etc.
    Synonyms: course, racetrack
    The athletes ran round the track.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗, page 58 ↗:
      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. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
  7. The direction and progress of someone or something; path.
  8. (railways) The way or rails along which a train moves.
    Synonyms: rails, railway, train tracks, tracks
    They briefly closed the railway to remove debris found on the track.
  9. A tract or area, such as of land.
    Synonyms: area, parcel, region, tract
  10. (slang) The street, as a prostitute's place of work.
    • 2012, Pimpin' Ken, PIMPOLOGY: The 48 Laws of the Game, page 11:
      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, Paul D. Jones, Twilight Nights: The Trials and Tribulations of the Game, page 130:
      After putting Tonya Down on the track, we headed to this club called the Players Club.
  11. Awareness of something, especially when arising from close monitoring.
  12. (automotive) The distance between two opposite wheels on a same axletree.
    Synonyms: track width
  13. (automotive) Short for caterpillar track.
  14. (cricket) The pitch.
    Synonyms: ground, pitch
  15. Sound stored on a record.
    Synonyms: recording
  16. The physical track on a record.
    Synonyms: groove
  17. (music) A song or other relatively short piece of music, on a record, separated from others by a short silence.
    My favourite track on the album is "Sunshine".
  18. A circular (never-ending) data storage unit on a side of magnetic or optical disk, divided into sectors.
  19. (uncountable, sports) The racing events of track and field; track and field in general.
    Synonyms: athletics, track and field
    I'm going to try out for track next week.
    • 1973, University of Virginia Undergraduate Record:
      The University of Virginia belongs to the Atlantic Coast Conference and competes interscholastically in basketball, baseball, crew, cross country, fencing, football, golf, indoor track, lacrosse, polo, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling.
  20. A themed set of talks within a conference.
  21. (fashion, colloquial) Clipping of trackshoe
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

track (tracks, present participle tracking; simple past and past participle tracked)

  1. To continue over time.
    1. (transitive) To observe the (measured) state of a person or object over time.
      We will track the raven population over the next six months.
    2. (transitive) To monitor the movement of a person or object.
      Agent Miles has been tracking the terrorist since Madrid.
    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.
      • 1837, Elizabeth Parker, Popular Poems. Selected by E. P., page 228:
        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; […]
    7. (transitive) To tow.
    8. (intransitive) To exhibit good cognitive function.
      Is the patient tracking? Does he know where he is?
      • 2010 October 1, "karimitch" (username), "Memory Loss - Pancreatic Cancer Forums ↗", in cancerforums.net, Cancer Forums:
        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.
  2. (transitive) To follow the tracks of.
    My uncle spent all day tracking the deer, whose hoofprints were clear in the mud.
  3. (transitive) 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.
  4. (transitive) To make tracks on or to leave in the form of tracks.
    In winter, my cat tracks mud all over the house.
  5. (transitive or intransitive) 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.
      • 2018, Dafni Tragaki, Made in Greece: Studies in Popular Music:
        At the time, tracking chiptunes (i.e. using trackers) was the fundamental method of chipmusic-making.
  6. (intransitive, colloquial) To make sense; to be consistent with known information
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary