1. To change or to develop in a general direction: The unemployment rate has been trending upward.
2. To bend or to turn away in a specified course: The Severn River trends toward Lake Ontario.
3. To show a tendency or movement toward something or in a particular way: Public opinion is trending against being involved in another war.

Unemployed people have trended toward frustration and hopelessness because they can't find a way to take care of themselves financially.

4. To extend, to incline, or to veer in a specified course: The prevailing wind in the weather forecast trends toward the east.

According to some people, the gender gap seems to be trending down.

5. Etymology: "to run" or "to bend in a certain direction"; developed from Middle English trenden, "roll around, turn, revolve"; found in Old English trendan, related to trinda, trinde, "round lump, ball", and trendel, "circle, ring, disk"; derived from the same word in the ancestral language of Old Frisian trind, trund, "round"; then Middle Low German trendel, "disk, spinning top" which is Trendel in modern German.