Fishing with a large net dragged behind a boat; or searching through information in a slow, systematic way.
From Middle Dutch 'traghel' (drag-net) or Middle French 'traille,' becoming common in English by the 1600s for fishing methods.
Internet 'trawling' shows how fishing vocabulary moved into digital life—it perfectly captures that act of slowly dragging through vast digital nets hoping to catch something worthwhile.
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