To trail off is to grow gradually fainter and stop. A voice that runs out of sentence.
It is used most about speech, since somebody whose voice trails off has lost their nerve, their thread or their point, and the phrase is a favourite in fiction because it shows uncertainty without describing it. Sounds, paths and numbers trail off too. It works without an object. Fade out and peter out do much the same, and peter out suits paths and supplies best.
1phrasetrail offTo become gradually quieter or fainter and then stop.
“His voice will trail off whenever he is asked a direct question.”
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.
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