Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tracing \Tra"cing\, n.
The act of one who traces; especially, the act of copying by marking on thin paper, or other transparent substance, the lines of a pattern placed beneath; also, the copy thus producted.
-
A regular path or track; a course.
Tracing cloth, Tracing paper, specially prepared transparent cloth or paper, which enables a drawing or print to be clearly seen through it, and so allows the use of a pen or pencil to produce a facsimile by following the lines of the original placed beneath.
Wiktionary
n. a translucent paper on which may be traced the design of whatever it is placed on
WordNet
n. a semitransparent paper that is used for tracing drawings
Wikipedia
Tracing paper is paper made to have low opacity, allowing light to pass through. It was originally developed for architects and design engineers to create drawings which could be copied precisely using the diazo copy process, it then found many other uses. The original use for drawing and tracing was largely superseded by technologies which do not require diazo copying or manual copying (by tracing) of drawings.
The transparency of the paper is achieved by careful selection of the raw materials and the process used to create transparency. Cellulose fibre forms the basis of the paper, usually from wood species but also from cotton fibre. Often, paper contains other filler materials to enhance opacity and print quality. For tracing or translucent paper it is necessary to remove any material which obstructs the transmission of light.
Usage examples of "tracing paper".
During the ensuing silence, Sciss opened his spacious, bellowslike leather briefcase and slowly drew out a sheet of tracing paper, folded several times and covered with colored markings.
Copies of two of these tracks (all four being nearly alike) were made on tracing paper placed over the glassplates after they had been varnished.
At length she threw down her pen in disgust, ripped the sheet of tracing paper off its drawing-pin anchors and crumpled it up.
The girl's eyes were too bright, her lips pale, her skin stretched thin like tracing paper.
Back in their room, the boys placed tracing paper over the photostat of the Senandaga map and marked the places they wanted to check.
Joe then locked the map in his suitcase and put the tracing paper in his pocket.
Putting an overlay of tracing paper onto the erased drawing, he began to move his pencil rapidly, nodding to himself as he worked, his tongue peeking from one corner of his mouth.
He took a sheet of tracing paper, threw it over the plan and began to draw.
On the table there were half a dozen enlarged photos of the same view, photos of horses and a sheet of tracing paper from which he'd worked.
This required his taking photographs of the latent prints in question, enlarging them five times, placing a sheet of tracing paper over each photograph and with a felt-tip pen tracing the most significant characteristics.
Today it held copies of her embroidery patterns, tracing paper, her spare pricking-wheel, and pounce bags of chalk and charcoal.
So I lay another sheet of tracing paper over the first, and then I can see the earlier sketch, and keep the right parts and change, delete, or re-locate the others.
Duglass Evelith opened a drawer under the table and produced a large sheet of tracing paper, on which coordinates and transit bearings were already marked.