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trailing

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Dragging or letting something hang behind; in poetry, evokes delay, weariness, or following.

Detailed Definition
In older or more literary usage, trailing can suggest a slow, dragging motion rather than the everyday sense of simply following. Here it describes the swans’ legs as they move through the air, giving the image a strange, almost human-like motion.
Example
Example in poetry:
Yeats, “The Wild Swans at Coole”: “Wild swans, come over the town again, / Trailing your legs and crying!” gives trailing a visible, downward motion; “Her scarf trailed behind her on the platform” uses the verb for something drawn along after a body; “The last notes trailed into traffic” extends trailing from physical movement to fading sound; “Clouds trailed purple shadows across the fields” makes the verb suggest length, delay, and aftermath
Additional Notes
In the line quoted, "trailing" is used in a vivid, literary way that may prompt readers to pause over its exact sense.; Found in the poem, Wild Swans by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Also Known As
lagging trailing behind following pursuing
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