trail // verb, noun

■ verb

1 [+ obj or no obj] (used especially in the continuous tenses)

to be less successful than other companies, people, etc:

Their sales are trailing behind other superstores.

Our 24% market share is trailing our competitor's 41%.

The UK trails badly when it comes to research and development spending on IT.

2 [+ obj]

to advertise a plan, product, film/movie, etc. in advance:

the company's heavily/widely trailed plans

The revenues were slightly better than trailed.

3 [+ obj]

to follow behind sb/sth:

New business jet orders typically trail a recovery by nine to twelve months.

For the first time in 30 years, dividend growth is leading rather than trailing the recovery in earnings.

PHRASAL VERBS

trail off (especially BrE)

to gradually become less:

Income from advertising increased in the first half of the year, but then trailed off.

■ noun [C]

AUDIT TRAIL, PAPER TRAIL

a series of marks that is left by sth as it moves and that shows where it has been

: (figurative) She quit her job, leaving a trail of unfinished projects and unreturned phone calls behind her.

With most emails bouncing between multiple servers and computers, all of which are backed up, any message is bound to leave a trail.

IDIOMS

be/go on the trail of sb/sth; be/go on the ... trail

to be following or trying to find sb/sth:

Analysts expect the company to be on the acquisition trail next year.

blaze a/the trail

to be the first to do or to discover sth that others follow:

Comet is blazing the jobs trail by creating 3 000 new jobs.

• public holiday
• public issue
• publicist
• publicity
• publicity stunt
• publicize
• public law
• public liability
• public limited company
• publicly-held
• publicly traded
• public offering
• public-private
• public-private partnership
• public relations
• public sale
• public sector
• public sector borrowing requirement
• public servant
• public service
• public service vehicle
• public spending
• public transport
• public warehouse
• public works