trawl
verb
[ trɔːl ]
• fish with a trawl net or seine.
• "the boats trawled for flounder"
• search thoroughly.
• "the Home Office trawled through twenty-five-year-old confidential files"
trawl
noun
• an act of fishing with a trawl net or seine.
• "they had caught two trout on the lazy trawl up-lake"
• a thorough search.
• "a constant trawl for information"
• a long sea-fishing line along which are tied buoys supporting baited hooks on short lines.
Origin:
mid 16th century (as a verb): probably from Middle Dutch traghelen ‘to drag’ (related to traghel ‘dragnet’), perhaps from Latin tragula ‘dragnet’.
