Meaning & use
Trawling
Last updated
To fish by dragging a large net through the water, or to search through something thoroughly and systematically.
See it in a sentence
The boat spent all night trawling for cod off the coast.
She spent hours trawling through old newspaper archives for the story.
A note on using this word
Originally a fishing term for dragging a net behind a boat, it is now widely used figuratively for exhaustive searching, as in 'trawling the internet.'
Words with a similar meaning
nettingscouringcombing
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Another way to use it
2. verb
To search through a large amount of material or data thoroughly.
Investigators were trawling through years of financial records.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Trawling”, then compare your use with the examples above.
Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.