trawled; trawling; trawls
1
a
: to fish with a trawl
b
: to make a search as if by trawling
2
: to catch (fish) with a trawl
1
: a large conical net dragged along the sea bottom in gathering fish or other marine life
2
: setline
Examples of trawl in a Sentence
Verb
The boat trawled far out at sea.
a fishing boat trawling the ocean floor
He trawled the Internet looking for websites on growing grapes.
She was trawling through old letters for information about her family.
Recent Examples on the Web
Guillaume Cabanac, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025
The team used a fine-mesh trawling net to collect samples at dozens of sites, then studied their catch.
—Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 3 Jan. 2025
Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 29 Jan. 2025
The rare find was also the second-largest rock sea bass ever recorded in an Aransas Bay trawl, officials said.
—Lauren Liebhaber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for trawl 
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Verb
This included, by some of us at different times, trawling websites and social media posts, interviewing publishers, editors, research-integrity experts, scientists, doctors, sociologists and scientific sleuths engaged in the Sisyphean task of cleaning up the literature.
—Guillaume Cabanac, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025
The team used a fine-mesh trawling net to collect samples at dozens of sites, then studied their catch.
—Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 3 Jan. 2025
Noun
On a new search screen accessible from the homepage, Reddit Answers takes anyone’s queries, trawls the site for relevant discussions and debates, and composes them into a response.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 29 Jan. 2025
The rare find was also the second-largest rock sea bass ever recorded in an Aransas Bay trawl, officials said.
—Lauren Liebhaber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for trawl
Dictionary Entries Near trawl
Cite this Entry
“Trawl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trawl. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
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