To trot means to run at a steady, medium-fast pace. When a horse trots, it moves faster than a walk but slower than a gallop, with a bouncy two-beat rhythm. Picture a horse in a show ring: it walks calmly, then speeds up to a trot with its legs moving in diagonal pairs, and finally breaks into a full gallop when it really wants to run.

People trot too. You might trot down the hallway when you're running a little late to class but don't want to get in trouble for sprinting. A jogger finding their rhythm might settle into a comfortable trot. Unlike sprinting, which tires you out quickly, trotting is a pace you can maintain for a while.

As a noun, a trot is this kind of steady, medium-fast run.

The word also appears in some interesting phrases. When someone trots something out, they present or use it again, often in a way that seems a bit overused. If you trot out an old excuse for missing homework, you're bringing out that familiar explanation one more time. And if things happen several days on the trot, they happen in a row without interruption, like scoring goals in three games on the trot.