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trace
with no trace
With no evidence left behind. Our house was totally ransacked after the break-in, with no trace of how the robbers got into the house. I'm allowed to use my mom's expensive blender, just as long as I do so with no trace of ever having touched it.
kick over the traces
Fig. to do what one is meant not to do; to rebel against authority. (Alludes to a horse that steps on the wrong side of the straps that link it to whatever it is pulling.) At the age of sixty, Walter kicked over the traces and ran away to Brazil. All these young kids seem to want to kick over the traces.
lose trace of someone or something
Rur. to fail to maintain a way of finding someone or something. I lost trace of Walter after we left high school. I lost trace of the stock certificates after about twenty years.
trace around something
to press something against paper and draw a line around the edges that are in contact with the paper. Trace around this piece of material and cut out a new pattern. If you trace around the edges carefully, you will end up with a good drawing of the outline.
trace over something
1. to draw over something lightly. Trace over the drawing to make it a little darker. I had to trace over it twice to make it visible.
2. to copy something by placing a thin sheet of paper over it and drawing an outline of the thing to be copied. Trace over this picture and then photocopy about ten copies for us all. This needs to be traced over again.
trace someone or something (back) (to someone or something)
to trail or track the origin of someone or something back to someone or something. We traced her back to the car she had ridden in, but lost her trail at that point. We traced the letter back to her. See if you can trace back the check to its writer.
kick over the traces
(British & Australian) to do what you want and not show any respect for authority
Usage notes: Traces are long pieces of leather which join a vehicle to the horse which is pulling it. If a horse kicks over the traces, it kicks its legs over these pieces of leather and goes out of control.
Some kids go straight to university and spend the first year kicking over the traces. sink without trace
to be forgotten about completely, after being popular for a while They enjoyed brief success with their second album and then sank without trace.
See get teeth intokick over the traces
Break loose from restraint, misbehave. For example, There's always one child who'll kick over the traces as soon as the bell rings. This metaphoric expression alludes to the straps attaching a horse to a vehicle, which the animal sometimes gets a leg over in order to kick more freely and thereby refuse to move forward. [Mid-1800s]
trace back
v.1. To ascertain the successive stages in the development or progress of something by reasoning backward from an effect to a cause: We traced our family history back 200 years. Skepticism as a philosophical movement can be traced back to Sextus Empiricus.
2. To derive from something or someone: The counterfeit drugs traced back to an American expatriate. Many English words trace back to Greek or Latin.
trace out
v.1. To sketch or delineate something: I laid out the map and traced out the path to the park.
2. To delineate some pattern or development over time: The results traced out an interesting pattern of sudden fluctuations every three months. The biographer traced out the politician's rise to power.
3. To ascertain something by reconstructing a series of events: The police traced out the Internet cafe as the place where the virus was launched. The motive for the crime was so unusual that no one could trace it out.
kick over the traces
To act in a way that contravenes social expectations or propriety: "As soon as the opportunity presented itself, [he] kicked over the traces and threw himself into a life of pleasure" (K.D. Reynolds).
kick over the traces
To disregard what is expected and follow your own wishes. Traces are the leather harness straps by which a horse is attached to a wagon or another vehicle. When the animal becomes upset, it may well kick out and end up stepping over the traces. At that point the driver has little or no control in steering or stopping. A person who rebels against convention and acts in what society would consider an unseemly manner has kicked over the traces. A similar equine-derived expression is “spit the bit and chuck the harness.”