If you trace the origin or development of something, you find out or describe how it started or developed.

If you trace someone or something, you find them after looking for them.

If you trace something such as a pattern or a shape, for example with your finger or toe, you mark its outline on a surface.

If you trace a picture, you copy it by covering it with a piece of transparent paper and drawing over the lines underneath.

A trace of something is a very small amount of it.

A trace is a sign which shows you that someone or something has been in a place.

If you say that someone or something sinks without trace or sinks without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.