dawdle vs trail

dawdle

verb
  • To move or walk lackadaisically. 

  • To spend time idly and unfruitfully; to waste time. 

  • Chiefly followed by away: to spend (time) without haste or purpose. 

noun
  • An act of spending time idly and unfruitfully; a dawdling. 

  • Synonym of dawdler (“a person who dawdles or idles”) 

  • An act of moving or walking lackadaisically, a dawdling; a leisurely or slow walk or other journey. 

trail

verb
  • To drag oneself lazily or reluctantly along. 

  • To show a trailer of (a film, TV show etc.); to release or publish a preview of (a report etc.) in advance of the full publication. 

  • To run or climb like certain plants. 

  • To be losing, to be behind in a competition. 

  • To leave (a trail of). 

  • To carry (a firearm) with the breech near the ground and the upper part inclined forward, the piece being held by the right hand near the middle. 

  • To transport (livestock) by herding it along a trail. 

  • To hang or drag loosely behind; to move with a slow sweeping motion. 

  • To follow behind (someone or something); to tail (someone or something). 

  • To travel by following or creating trails. 

  • To drag (something) behind on the ground. 

  • To create a trail in. 

noun
  • A trailer broadcast on television for a forthcoming film or programme. 

  • The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the sky. 

  • A walk in which all the edges are distinct. 

  • A route for travel over land, especially a narrow, unpaved pathway for use by hikers, horseback riders, etc. 

  • A route or circuit generally. 

  • The horizontal distance from where the wheel touches the ground to where the steering axis intersects the ground. 

How often have the words dawdle and trail occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )