tracing
following something to its source
finding out where something came from, where it went, or how it changed over time
tracing [something] to [something]; the tracing of [something]
- The tracing of the stolen funds led investigators to an overseas account.
- Her article is a careful tracing of how the slang term spread online.
- Tracing the source of the leak took the engineers two days.
- Tracing my family history is fun.
- Tracing the source of the noise was difficult.
copying by following lines
copying a picture or letter by drawing on top of its lines
tracing [letters/a picture/an outline]
- Tracing letters helps children learn their shapes.
- She put the photograph under a sheet of paper and started tracing the outline.
- The app lets you practice tracing Chinese characters on the screen.
- I practiced tracing circles.
- Tracing this picture is easy.
copy made by tracing
a copy of a picture or shape made by tracing it
a tracing of [something]; make a tracing
- Make a tracing of the floor plan before you change the original.
- The archaeologists compared tracings of the inscription from two different sites.
- The detective kept a tracing of the tire mark in the case file.
- This is my tracing of the map.
- She made a tracing of the flower.
recording activity for analysis
recording what a system or program does so people can find problems
enable tracing; tracing of [requests/events/execution]
- Enable tracing before you run the test, so we can see where the request fails.
- The team added tracing to the payment service after several slow checkouts.
- Tracing data showed that most of the delay came from the database.
- Tracing helps developers find errors.
- We turned on tracing to see the problem.
diagnostic graph record
a line graph from a medical machine, such as a heart test
an ECG/EKG/EEG tracing; a tracing of [activity/heartbeat]
- The ECG tracing showed an irregular heartbeat.
- A nurse printed the fetal heart-rate tracing for the doctor.
- The EEG tracing changed when the patient fell asleep.
- The doctor looked at the heart tracing.
- Base: tracing
- Plural: tracing, tracings
asset tracing
1locating hidden or disputed assets
finding where money or property is and who controls it
- The court ordered asset tracing to find money moved out of the company.
- Asset tracing revealed a series of transfers through shell companies.
- The firm specializes in asset tracing after large fraud cases.
call tracing
1identifying a call source
finding where a phone call came from
- Police used call tracing to identify where the emergency call came from.
- The phone company can activate call tracing for repeated threatening calls.
- Call tracing showed that the number had been spoofed.
contact tracing
1identifying exposed disease contacts
finding people who may have caught a disease from someone else
- Contact tracing began as soon as the measles case was confirmed.
- The clinic used contact tracing to warn people who might have been exposed.
- Effective contact tracing can help slow the spread of an outbreak.
distributed tracing
1monitoring requests across services
a way for developers to follow one request through many connected computer services
- Distributed tracing showed that the checkout request slowed down in the inventory service.
- Engineers use distributed tracing to debug microservices.
- The platform added distributed tracing to make production errors easier to investigate.
ray tracing
1realistic light simulation
a way for computers to make light and reflections look realistic
- Ray tracing makes reflections and shadows look more realistic in games.
- The new graphics card can handle real-time ray tracing.
- The film studio used ray tracing to render the glass and water effects.
skip tracing
1locating a hard-to-find person
finding someone who is hard to find, often because they owe money or are avoiding people
- The agency used skip tracing to find a tenant who had left without paying rent.
- Skip tracing combines public records, credit data, and interviews.
- A private investigator handled the skip tracing for the law firm.
tracing paper
1transparent copying paper
thin paper you can see through, used to copy drawings
- She laid tracing paper over the sketch and copied the design.
- The sewing pattern was printed on thin tracing paper.
- Students used tracing paper to compare the two maps.