Trace \Trace\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. traced; p. pr. & vb. n. tracing.]

[OF. tracier, F. tracer, from (assumed) LL. tractiare, fr.L. tractus, p. p. of trahere to draw. Cf. Abstract, Attract, Contract, Portratt, Tract, Trail, Train, Treat. ]

1. To mark out; to draw or delineate with marks; especially, to copy, as a drawing or engraving, by following the lines and marking them on a sheet superimposed, through which they appear; as, to trace a figure or an outline; a traced drawing.

Some faintly traced features or outline of the mother and the child, slowly lading into the twilight of the woods. --Hawthorne.

2. To follow by some mark that has been left by a person or thing which has preceded; to follow by footsteps, tracks, or tokens. --Cowper.

You may trace the deluge quite round the globe. --T. Burnet.

I feel thy power . . . to trace the ways Of highest agents. --Milton.

3. Hence, to follow the trace or track of.

How all the way the prince on footpace traced. --Spenser.

4. To copy; to imitate.

That servile path thou nobly dost decline, Of tracing word, and line by line. --Denham.

5. To walk over; to pass through; to traverse.

We do tracethis alley up and down. --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Tracing \Tra"cing\, n.

1. The act of one who traces; especially, the act of copying by marking on thin paper, or other transparent substance, the lines of a pattern placed beneath; also, the copy thus producted.

2. A regular path or track; a course.

Tracing cloth, Tracing paper, specially prepared transparent cloth or paper, which enables a drawing or print to be clearly seen through it, and so allows the use of a pen or pencil to produce a facsimile by following the lines of the original placed beneath.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)