▪ I. trickling, vbl. n.
(ˈtrɪklɪŋ)
[f. trickle v. + -ing1.]
a. The action of the verb trickle; also concr. that which trickles.
| 1628 Gaule Pract. The. (1629) 34 The slow tricklings of his Mercie;..the full streame of outward blessings. 1814 Byron Lara ii. xvii, The tides [of blood]..In feebler, not less fatal tricklings flow. 1863 Baring-Gould Iceland 134 Shale..wet with tricklings from the rock overhead. |
b. trickling filter = percolating filter s.v. percolating vbl. n.
| 1903 W. J. Dibdin Purification of Sewage & Water (ed. 3) p. xv, I think it is quite practicable to deal with Leeds sewage on trickling filters without antecedent septic treatment. 1976 Ann. Rev. Microbiol. XXX. 266 Bacterial and viral aerosols are generated..and bacteria have been detected at least 0·8 mile from a trickling filter. |
▪ II. ˈtrickling, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That trickles: see the verb.
| c 1375 [see trickle v. 1 a]. 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. iv. 23 With habundans of mony trigland teir Wetand thar brestis. 1557 in Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 215 Not euery tricklyng teare doth argue inward paine. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxviii. vii, The trickling springs to such huge rivers grew. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 181 Rivers..which after a long trickling race..disembogue themselves into the Caspian. 1791 Cowper Iliad iv. 170 Stained with thy trickling blood. 1848 J. Edmeston Sacr. Poetry (1868) 202 Dry the trickling tear. |