semi-trailing

semi-trailing (not comparable)

1. (horticulture) Having stems thick enough to stand somewhat erect, but eventually drooping like a vine.
   • 1957, Norman Taylor, Garden Guide, page 423:

     The latter method must be used for some varieties that are semi-trailing and for the frankly trailing sorts, such as the dewberry and youngberry.

   • 1999, African Violet Magazine - Volume 52, page 15:

     'Marion's Enchanted Trail' ( Pittman ) tends more toward the semi-trailing type, freely producing many crowns from which absolute masses of medium blue blooms are produced.

   • 2012, Lee A. Reich, Landscaping with Fruit:

     This plant is semi-trailing and cold-hardy.

   • 2020, Robert E Gough, Edward Barclay Poling, Small Fruits in the Home Garden:

     The semi-trailing thornless blackberries may not qualify for a place in your home garden or landscape if you are unwilling to make a slight compromise on flavor.

2. (mechanics) Having a movement that pivots on an access which is at an angle between longitudinal and transverse.

   semi-trailing arm suspension

   • 2002, Heinz Heisler, Advanced Vehicle Technology, page 397:

     Swivelling of these semi-trailing arms is therefore neither true transverse or true trailing but is a combination of both.

   • 2009, John C. Dixon, Suspension Geometry and Computation, page 28:

     The next development, introduced in 1951, was the semi-trailing arm in which the arm pivot axis is a compromise between the swing axle and the plain trailing arm, typically in the range of 15° to 25°, as in Figure 1.10.4.

   • 2010, Bernhard Heißing, Metin Ersoy, Chassis Handbook, page 395:

     Semi-trailing links are optimal with regard to this requirement as they can support forces in both the lateral and longitudinal directions through the same pivot points.

   • 2022, Avesta Goodarzi, Amir Khajepour, Vehicle Suspension System Technology and Design, page 14:

     To reduce this unwanted effect, the design of the trailing arm has been modified to a semi-trailing arm suspension, where the revolt axis of the control arm makes an angle with the vehicle's longitudinal axis, as shown in Figure 2.3.

3. (verse) Having an opening syllable that is the continuation of a preceding line and including a syntactic break such as a comma or full stop somewhere after that but before the end.
   • 2001, David Keppel-Jones, Strict Metrical Tradition, page 79:

     I have already pointed out a tendency in the semi-trailing and trailing types for attention to be drawn subtly to the switched pair of syllables; this illusory trochaic framework serves at least in the trailing type to focus attention still more on that pair, as a switch. In the few examples we have of the semi-trailing type, the same effect is not always as clear.