Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, ت

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5 تتبّعهُ أتبع تبع تتبع تتبعه تتبعة ٱتبع , inf. n. تَتَبُّعٌ, (Lth, S, Msb, * K,) for which ↓ اِتِّبَاعٌ is used by El-Kutámee, tropically, (S,) or, accord. to Sb, because the same in meaning; (TA;) and ↓ تبعّه , inf. n. تَتْبِيعٌ; (S, K; *) He pursued it; investigated it; examined it; hunted after it; prosecuted a search after it; made successive, or repeated, endeavours to attain it, to reach it, or to obtain it; or sought it, sought for it, or sought after it, successively, time after time, or repeatedly, or in a leisurely manner, by degrees, gradually, step by step, bit by bit, or one thing after another, (Lth, S, * Msb, K, * TA,) following after it. (S.) Hence the saying of Zeyd Ibn-Thábit, respecting the collecting of the Kur-án, فَعَلِقْتُ أَتَتَبَّعُهُ مِنَ اللِّخَافِ وَالعُسُبِ [And I set myself to seeking to collect it successively, &c., from the thin white stones and the leafless palm-branches upon which it was written]. (TA.) And تتبّع البِلَادَ يَخْرُجُ مِنْ أَرْضٍ إِِلَى أَرْضٍ [He investigated the countries, going forth from land to land]. (S and K in art. قرى.) And فُلَانٌ يَتَتَبَّعُ أَثَرَ فُلَانٍ [Such a one pursues, &c., the track of such a one]. (TA.) And يَتَتَبَّعُ مَسَاوِىَ فُلَانٍ [He seeks successively, &c., to discover the vices, faults, or evil qualities or actions, of such a one]. (TA.) And يَتَتَبَّعُ مَدَاقَّ الأُمُورِ وَنَحْوَ ذٰلِكَ [He pursues small, or little, affairs; and the like thereof: or he seeks successively, &c., to obtain a knowledge of the subtilties, niceties, abstrusities, or obscuri- ties, of things, or affairs; and the like thereof]. (TA.) And تتبّع الحَبْلَ [He took successive holds of the rope]: said of a man descending from a part of a mountain such as is termed شِيق, by means of a rope tied to that part, to a place in which honey was deposited. (TA in art. شيق.)