Definition

1. Verb:

   • To flow or fall in a slow, thin, and often irregular stream of small drops or a small amount of liquid.
   • To move, arrive, or become known slowly, gradually, and in small numbers or amounts.

2. Noun:

   • A slow, thin, and often unsteady flow or stream of liquid.
   • A small, gradual, and often sparse number or amount of something moving or arriving.

Examples of Usage

• Verb:

  • Water began to trickle from the cracked pipe.
  • News about the event trickled in over several days.
  • Sweat trickled down his back in the heat.

• Noun:

  • A trickle of water was all that came from the old well.
  • After the initial rush, only a trickle of customers entered the store.
  • He listened to the steady trickle of the stream.

Advanced Usage

• "to trickle down": (Economics) The theory that benefits for the wealthy, such as tax cuts, will eventually benefit poorer people as the money circulates in the economy. More generally, it means for something to spread gradually from a higher to a lower level.
  • The government hoped the economic gains would trickle down to all citizens.
• "to trickle out": For information, news, or people to emerge or depart slowly and gradually over a period of time.
  • Details of the scandal trickled out for months.

Variants and Related Words

• Trickle-down (adjective): Relating to the economic theory of "trickle-down."
  • trickle-down economics
• Tricklet (noun, rare/archaic): A small trickle.
• Trickling (present participle/adjective): The act of flowing slowly or something that flows slowly.
  • the trickling sound of water

Synonyms

• Dribble: To flow in small drops or a thin stream.
• Drip: To fall in drops.
• Ooze: To flow or leak out slowly, often used for viscous liquids.
• Seep: To flow or pass gradually through small openings.
• Filter: To pass or move through something in a gradual way (often used for information or people).

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Trickle away: To gradually disappear, diminish, or leave in small amounts.
  • The crowd trickled away after the speech ended.
• Trickle through: For something to become known or to pass through a system or barrier slowly and gradually.
  • The new policy will take time to trickle through the entire organization.

Related Idioms

• A trickle becomes a stream: A small beginning can grow into something much larger.
  • What started as a trickle of complaints has become a stream of demands for change.

Noun

1. flowing in drops; the formation and falling of drops of liquid
   • there's a drip through the roof

Verb

1. run or flow slowly, as in drops or in an unsteady stream
   • water trickled onto the lawn from the broken hose
   • reports began to dribble in