trailer

Meanings

Noun

• Someone who or something that trails.
• Part of an object which extends some distance beyond the main body of the object.
• An unpowered wheeled vehicle, not a caravan or camper, that is towed behind another, and used to carry equipment, etc, that cannot be carried in the leading vehicle.
• A furnished vehicle towed behind another, and used as a dwelling when stationary; a caravan; a camper.
• A prefabricated home that could be towed to a new destination but is typically permanently left in an area designated for such homes.
• A preview of a film, video game or TV show.
• A short blank segment of film at the end of a reel, for convenient insertion of the film in a projector.
• The final record of a list of data items, often identified by a key field with an otherwise invalid value that sorts last alphabetically (e.g., “ZZZZZ”) or numerically (“99999”); especially common in the context of punched cards, where the final card is called a trailer card.
• The last part of a packet, often containing a check sequence.

Verb

• To load on a trailer or to transport by trailer.

Origin

• From trail + -er. The film sense derives from the fact that previews were formerly shown after the main feature, rather than before as is usual today.