trawl

1 of 2

verb

ˈtrȯl 

trawled; trawling; trawls

intransitive verb

1

a

: to fish with a trawl

b

: to make a search as if by trawling

2

: troll sense 1a

transitive verb

: to catch (fish) with a trawl

trawl

2 of 2

noun

1

: a large conical net dragged along the sea bottom in gathering fish or other marine life

2

: setline

Examples of trawl in a Sentence

Verb

The boat trawled far out at sea.

a fishing boat trawling the ocean floor

He trawled the Internet looking for websites on growing grapes.

She was trawling through old letters for information about her family.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

That’s what researchers at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences theorize after studying the movements of krill trawled from Antarctica’s Bransfield Strait. —Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 20 Mar. 2025

Users need to trawl through their phones and remove trivial, vacuous apps. —Zak Doffman, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2025

Noun

In the depths of the north Pacific, long wriggling creatures were caught up in the trawl of a research vessel off the coast of Russia. —Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 12 Feb. 2025

On a new search screen accessible from the homepage, Reddit Answers takes anyone’s queries, trawls the site for relevant discussions and debates, and composes them into a response. —Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 29 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Verb

probably from obsolete Dutch tragelen

First Known Use

Verb

1561, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Noun

1759, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for trawl

• ahl
• all
• aul
• bawl
• brawl
• call
• caul
• crawl
• dol
• doll
• drawl
• fall

Kids Definition

trawl

1 of 2 verb

ˈtrȯl 

: to fish or catch with a trawl

trawl

2 of 2 noun

1

: a large cone-shaped net dragged along the sea bottom in fishing

2

: setline