1. A general direction in which something is developing or changing: There is a downward trend in sales and profit margins these days.
2. A way of behaving or proceeding which is developing and becoming more common: The trends of the stock market are up sometimes and then they are down at other times.

Digital technology is the current trend in television.

Many teachers are trying to reverse the general trend of lower test scores in schools.

His trend against hiring more workers is a result of receiving lower profits.

3. In medicine, the inclination to proceed in a certain direction or at a certain rate: Helena's doctor explained his recommended trend for the healing of her illness.

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.