1 trawl (through sth) (for sth/sb);trawl sth (for sth/sb) to search through a large amount of information or a large number of people, places, etc looking for a particular thing or person 搜寻；搜罗: She trawled the shops for bargains. 她跑了许多商店寻找便宜货。Major companies trawl the universities for potential employees. 大公司在大学里物色潜在的雇员。The police are trawling through their files for a similar case. 警方翻阅档案搜寻类似的案件。

2 trawl (for sth) to fish for sth by pulling a large net with a wide opening through the water 用拖网捕鱼