trot

Etymology 1

From Middle English trotten, from Old French trotter, troter (“to go, trot”), from Medieval Latin *trottō, *trotō (“to go”), from Frankish *trottōn (“to go, run”), from Proto-Germanic *trudōną, *trudaną, *tradjaną (“to go, step, tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂- (“to run, escape”). Cognate with Old High German trottōn (“to run”), Modern German trotten (“to trot, plod”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (trudan, “to tread”), Old Norse troða (“to walk, tread”), Old English tredan (“to step, tread”). Doublet of tread.

noun

1. (archaic, derogatory) An ugly old woman, a hag.
2. (chiefly of horses) A gait of a four-legged animal between walk and canter, a diagonal gait (in which diagonally opposite pairs of legs move together).
   Dogs have a variety of gaits. Most dogs have the walk, trot, pace, and gallop. 2000, Margaret H. Bonham, Introduction to: Dog Agility, page 14
   The toelt is comfortable for the rider because the amplitude of the dorsoventral displacement is lower than at the trot.[…]The slow trot is a two-beat symmetric diagonal gait. Among the normal variations of the trot of saddle horses, the speed of the gait increases from collected to extended trot. 2008, Kenneth W. Hinchcliff, Andris J. Kaneps, Raymond J. Geor, Equine Exercise Physiology: The Science of Exercise in the Athletic Horse, Elsevier, page 154
   To assume the correct position for the posting trot, first walk, with the body inclined forward in a posting position. Then put the horse into a slow or sitting trot at six miles an hour. Do not post. 2009, Gordon Wright, George H. Morris, Learning To Ride, Hunt, And Show, page 65
3. A gait of a person or animal faster than a walk but slower than a run.
4. A brisk journey or progression.
   We often take the car and have a trot down to the beach.
   In this lesson we'll have a quick trot through Chapter 3 before moving on to Chapter 4.
5. A toddler.
   1855, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, 1869, The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, Volume V: The Newcomes, Volume I, page 123, […] but Ethel romped with the little children — the rosy little trots — and took them on her knees, and told them a thousand stories.
6. (obsolete) A young animal.
7. (dance">dance) A moderately rapid dance">dance.
8. (Australia, obsolete) A succession of heads thrown in a game of two-up.
9. (Australia, New Zealand, with "good" or "bad") A run of luck or fortune.
   He′s had a good trot, but his luck will end soon.
   It was to be a hugely special occasion, for apart from the picture shows at the Majestic, there was usually nothing at all going on in Sandspit to make anyone think they were on a good trot living there. 1994, Noel Virtue, Sandspit Crossing, page 34
   Should he or she be having a bad trot, the exchange rate will be higher than normal. 2004, John Mosig, Ric Fallu, Australian Fish Farmer: A Practical Guide to Aquaculture, 2nd edition, page 21
10. (dated, slang, among students) Synonym of horse (illegitimate study aid)
11. (informal, as 'the trots') Diarrhoea.
    He's got a bad case of the trots and has to keep running off to the toilet.

verb

1. (intransitive) To move along briskly; specifically, to move at a pace between a walk and a run.
   I didn't want to miss my bus, so I trotted the last few hundred yards to the stop.
   The dog trotted along obediently by his master's side.
   I would trot ten or twelve miles each day, go into a cheap restaurant and eat my fill of bread, but would never be satisfied. During these wanderings I once hit on a vegetarian restaurant in Farringdon Street. The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart. 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xiv
   They sent little Jane to the garden to play, But she opened the gate, and then trotted away Under the hawthorns and down the green lane, Bad little, mad little, runaway Jane! c. 1920s-1930s, Charlotte Druitt Cole, Runaway Jane
2. (intransitive, of a horse) To move at a gait between a walk and a canter.
3. (transitive) To cause to move, as a horse or other animal, in the pace called a trot; to cause to run without galloping or cantering.
4. (UK, slang, archaic, transitive) To bid against (a person) at an auction, so as to raise the price of the goods.
   A particular friend of mine complained that I had "trotted" him at a sale, but he did not see what was happening on the part of the other bidder. 1927, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, The Parliamentary Debates (Official Report), page 2221

Etymology 2

Short for foxtrot, whose rhythms influenced the genre.

noun

1. A genre of Korean pop music employing repetitive rhythm and vocal inflections.

Etymology 3

noun

1. (derogatory, properly Trot) Clipping of Trotskyist.
   The problem is that the likes of Shapps and his boss Boris Johnson are eager for a fight with the unions. They are being deliberately provocative, so they can portray railway workers as 'troublesome trots'. June 15 2022, Christian Wolmar, “What do the railways need and how can we fulfil that need?”, in RAIL, number 959, page 45