trot
part of speech
verb (trot, trots, trotted, trotting); noun (a trot, trots)
meaning for a pupil
1) When a horse trots, it moves faster than walking, lifting its legs in pairs with a bouncy step. tree →
2) When a person or animal trots, they run slowly with short steps. tree →
3) A trot is this kind of movement. tree →
4) «On the trot» (British) means one after another. tree →
5) To trot after someone can mean to follow closely behind them. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories and on farms, horses walk, trot, canter and gallop — from slowest to fastest. Children trot after parents; dogs trot along the path. In British talk, «three wins on the trot» means three in a row. Phrases: «at a trot», «trot along», «trot off», «on the trot».
examples
- The pony trotted around the field. tree →
- The little dog trotted beside me. tree →
- We went from a walk to a trot. tree →
- My sister trotted off to find her shoes. tree →
- Our team won four games on the trot. tree →
- Horses walk, trot, canter and gallop. tree →
- He trotted down the stairs to breakfast. tree →
- I will trot on your track when I waken up.” tree →
note
Regular verb but double the t: trotted, trotting. Order of horse speeds: walk, trot, canter, gallop. «On the trot» meaning «in a row» is British and informal.
In the corpora
- Picture a city garden at midnight: a fox trots past the bins and somewhere a rabbit freezes, then zigzags away.
- Real hedgehogs walk slowly and can trot, but cannot race; Sonic was named for speed, not for biology.
- On the way home from school a scruffy street dog starts trotting behind you.
- The Mole has to trot up and down to dry himself while the Rat rescues the boat and dives for the picnic basket.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «trot» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.