All 26 Uses of
trace
in
Jane Eyre
- I suppose I have a considerable organ of veneration, for I retain yet the sense of admiring awe with which my eyes traced her steps.†
Chpt 5
- Burns obeyed: I looked at her narrowly as she emerged from the book-closet; she was just putting back her handkerchief into her pocket, and the trace of a tear glistened on her thin cheek.†
Chpt 6
- …the sharp air of January, began to heal and subside under the gentler breathings of April; the nights and mornings no longer by their Canadian temperature froze the very blood in our veins; we could now endure the play-hour passed in the garden: sometimes on a sunny day it began even to be pleasant and genial, and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.†
Chpt 9
- I traced the white road winding round the base of one mountain, and vanishing in a gorge between two; how I longed to follow it farther!†
Chpt 10
- …removed here, as fashions changed: and the imperfect light entering by their narrow casement showed bedsteads of a hundred years old; chests in oak or walnut, looking, with their strange carvings of palm branches and cherubs' heads, like types of the Hebrew ark; rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow; stools still more antiquated, on whose cushioned tops were yet apparent traces of half-effaced embroideries, wrought by fingers that for two generations had been coffin-dust.†
Chpt 11
- His figure was enveloped in a riding cloak, fur collared and steel clasped; its details were not apparent, but I traced the general points of middle height and considerable breadth of chest.†
Chpt 12
- A touch of a spurred heel made his horse first start and rear, and then bound away; the dog rushed in his traces; all three vanished, "Like heath that, in the wilderness, The wild wind whirls away."†
Chpt 12
- In the clear embers I was tracing a view, not unlike a picture I remembered to have seen of the castle of Heidelberg, on the Rhine, when Mrs. Fairfax came in, breaking up by her entrance the fiery mosaic I had been piercing together, and scattering too some heavy unwelcome thoughts that were beginning to throng on my solitude.†
Chpt 13
- And not even in Hay Lane, or the fields about it, could you find a trace of them.†
Chpt 13
- Sympathies, I believe, exist (for instance, between far-distant, long-absent, wholly estranged relatives asserting, notwithstanding their alienation, the unity of the source to which each traces his origin) whose workings baffle mortal comprehension.†
Chpt 21
- This I felt sure was Eliza, though I could trace little resemblance to her former self in that elongated and colourless visage.†
Chpt 21
- How often had it lowered on me menace and hate! and how the recollection of childhood's terrors and sorrows revived as I traced its harsh line now!†
Chpt 21
- Soon I had traced on the paper a broad and prominent forehead and a square lower outline of visage: that contour gave me pleasure; my fingers proceeded actively to fill it with features.†
Chpt 21
- Strongly-marked horizontal eyebrows must be traced under that brow; then followed, naturally, a well-defined nose, with a straight ridge and full nostrils; then a flexiblelooking mouth, by no means narrow; then a firm chin, with a decided cleft down the middle of it: of course, some black whiskers were wanted, and some jetty hair, tufted on the temples, and waved above the forehead.†
Chpt 21
- I drew them large; I shaped them well: the eyelashes I traced long and sombre; the irids lustrous and large.†
Chpt 21 *
- I see a white cheek and a faded eye, but no trace of tears.†
Chpt 27 *
- Remembering what it was — what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light — I felt the might and strength of God.†
Chpt 28
- Having crossed the marsh, I saw a trace of white over the moor.†
Chpt 28
- We may, perhaps, succeed in restoring her to them, if she is not obstinate: but I trace lines of force in her face which make me sceptical of her tractability.†
Chpt 29
- The traces of the bog were removed from it; the creases left by the wet smoothed out: it was quite decent.†
Chpt 29
- My clothes hung loose on me; for I was much wasted, but I covered deficiencies with a shawl, and once more, clean and respectable looking — no speck of the dirt, no trace of the disorder I so hated, and which seemed so to degrade me, left — I crept down a stone staircase with the aid of the banisters, to a narrow low passage, and found my way presently to the kitchen.†
Chpt 29
- He examined my face, I thought, with austerity, as I came near: the traces of tears were doubtless very visible upon it.†
Chpt 31
- If he were insane, however, his was a very cool and collected insanity: I had never seen that handsome-featured face of his look more like chiselled marble than it did just now, as he put aside his snow-wet hair from his forehead and let the firelight shine free on his pale brow and cheek as pale, where it grieved me to discover the hollow trace of care or sorrow now so plainly graved.†
Chpt 33
- He got up, held it close to my eyes: and I read, traced in Indian ink, in my own handwriting, the words "JANE EYRE" — the work doubtless of some moment of abstraction.†
Chpt 33
- His idea was still with me, because it was not a vapour sunshine could disperse, nor a sand-traced effigy storms could wash away; it was a name graven on a tablet, fated to last as long as the marble it inscribed.†
Chpt 34
- While earnestly wishing to erase from his mind the trace of my former offence, I had stamped on that tenacious surface another and far deeper impression, I had burnt it in.†
Chpt 35
Definitions:
-
(trace as in: found a trace of) a small quantity; or any indication or evidence ofThe exact meaning of this sense of trace depends upon its context. For example:
- a small indication that something was present -- as in "The plane disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean without leaving a trace."
- a very small amount of something -- as in "The blood test showed a trace of steroids."
- any evidence of something -- as in "We did not find a trace of the gene."
-
(trace as in: trace the origin or development) to find, search, research, or keep track ofThis sense of trace usually has to do with information. It's specific meaning depends on its context. For example:
to find or search for something through investigation -- often the origin of something:
- "The police traced the call." -- found out where it originated
- "We are tracing the lost luggage" -- searching for
- "Can you trace the problem to its source?" -- find through investigation
- "She traced her family history to discover that her great-grandmother came to the United States from Lithuania when the Nazis occupied it." -- discovered something through investigation
to research or report on the development of something
- "She traced the history of the automobile in her paper." -- researched the development of something
- "Her presentation traced recent progress in alternative energy solutions." -- reported on
to monitor or keep track of the progress or development of something
- "She traces the progress of at-risk students." -- monitors information
- "I used binoculars to trace her progress up the mountain." -- monitor, follow, or track