track
pronunciation
How to pronounce track in British English:
UK [træk]
How to pronounce track in American English:
US [træk]
-
- Noun:
- a line or route along which something travels or moves
- evidence pointing to a possible solution
- a pair of parallel rails providing a runway for wheels
- a course over which races are run
- a distinct selection of music from a recording or a compact disc
- an endless metal belt on which tracked vehicles move over the ground
- (computer science) one of the circular magnetic paths on a magnetic disk that serve as a guide for writing and reading data
- a groove on a phonograph recording
- a bar or bars of rolled steel making a track along which vehicles can roll
- any road or path affording passage especially a rough one
- the act of participating in an athletic competition involving running on a track
-
- Verb:
- carry on the feet and deposit
- observe or plot the moving path of something
- go after with the intent to catch
- travel across or pass over
- make tracks upon
Word Origin
- track
- track: [15] Track was borrowed from Old French trac ‘trail, set of footprints, etc’. This too appears to have been a loanword, from Middle Dutch trek ‘pulling’ (ultimate source of English trek [19], via Afrikaans), which was derived from the verb trekken ‘pull’. The sense ‘path’ did not emerge until as recently as the 19th century.=> trek
- track (n.)
- late 15c., "footprint, mark left by anything," from Old French trac "track of horses, trace" (mid-15c.), possibly from a Germanic source (compare Middle Low German treck, Dutch trek "drawing, pulling;" see trek). Meaning "lines of rails for drawing trains" is from 1805. Meaning "branch of athletics involving a running track" is recorded from 1905. Meaning "single recorded item" is from 1904, originally in reference to phonograph records. Meaning "mark on skin from repeated drug injection" is first attested 1964. Track record (1955) is a figurative use from racing, "performance history" of an individual car, runner, horse, etc. (1907, but the phrase was more common in sense "fastest speed recorded at a particular track"). To make tracks "move quickly" is American English colloquial first recorded 1835; to cover (one's) tracks in the figurative sense first attested 1898; to keep track of something is attested from 1883. American English wrong side of the tracks "bad part of town" is by 1901. Track lighting attested from 1970.
- track (v.)
- "to follow or trace the footsteps of," 1560s, from track (n.). Meaning "leave a footprint trail in dirt, mud, etc." is from 1838. Of film and TV cameras, 1959. Related: Tracked; tracking.
Example
- 1. Sales and stocks track each other closely .
- 2. You need some calendaring system to track your deadlines .
- 3. She walked for miles on a track near the hospital .
- 4. To see what they were beside the track .
- 5. Can anything be done to spur more world-beating results on the track ?