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Glite Dictionary
cattle trail

cattle trail

2.8
A path used to drive cattle to market or to other grazing land
  • noun
  • /ˈkætəl treɪl/
  • US
translation icon : sendero ganadero
  • Along the winding cattle trail, they spotted a family of deer grazing peacefully.
  • an old cattle trail
  • followed the cattle trail

Examples

  • The rancher guided his herd down the dusty cattle trail toward the market.

  • The whole tract was crisscrossed by cattle trails, dotted with parched cattle droppings.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • No cattle trail or anything else goes in that direction.

    Bone Tomahawk (2015)

  • Finding nothing but a small cattle trail.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The cattle trail led straight to the woods.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Hercules whipped her horses, and they were off, following the cattle trail away from the kill site.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Fort Myers passengers went south from there by horse and hack, five hours on old cattle trails to the Alva ferry.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The cattle trail led south, past humped burial mounds covered over with wild wheat and blue coneflowers.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • From historical information provided in the novel and from other sources, locate and label the cattle trail(s) to Abilene on a map of the United States.

    Academic text (1994)

  • And this is the Dung Man, Copreus, the King of Mycenae's herald, who followed the cattle trail from Thrace.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

trail
vscattle trail
318 1.6

A rough path through the countryside for walking or riding

is a route mainly for driving animals to market or railheads

Surface Forms

cattle trail singular
cattle trails plural

Morphology

cattle + trail

The meaning 'a route along which cattle are driven' is directly and compositionally derived from 'cattle' (livestock) + 'trail' (a path). This is a literal, cross-linguistically common noun–noun combination that a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand.

Etymology

The noun cattle trail comes from the real paths where ranchers drove their cattle to market. The word trail means a simple path, so the phrase refers to a 'route' used to move herds from one place to another.