trickle

noun

1. A very thin river.

   “The brook had shrunk to a mere trickle.”

2. A very thin flow; the sound of such a flow.

   “The tap of the washbasin in my bedroom is leaking and the trickle drives me mad at night.”

   “The streams that run south and east from the mountains to the coast are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud.”

verb

1. (transitive)to pour a liquid in a very thin stream, or so that drops fall continuously.

   “The doctor trickled some iodine on the wound.”

2. (intransitive)to flow in a very thin stream or drop continuously.

   “Here the water just trickles along, but later it becomes a torrent.”

   “The film was so bad that people trickled out of the cinema before its end.”

   “Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress.”

   “The period of intensive traffic is over by about 5.30 p.m. and for the rest of the evening steadily diminishes, the main activity being the Channel Islands boat trains which trickle in after about 6.30 p.m. and depart again for Weymouth an hour or so later.”

3. (intransitive)To move or roll slowly.

   “Some [marbles] were found in a child's grave at Nagada, Egypt […] together with a set of ninepins and three rectangular bricks which could have formed an arch through which to trickle the balls.”

   “They gather one by one, trickling into the shady courtyard, the familiar hum of Mass. Ave. wafting in from behind brick buildings and iron gates.”

   “Their only shot of the first period was a long-range strike from top-scorer Ebanks-Blake which trickled tamely wide.”