Learn English – “How does that track with you?” What does it mean

meaningmeaning-in-contextphrase-meaning

I heard a line in the movie The Humbling of the character played by Al Pacino:

Well, you're the psychiatrist. How does that track with you?

My research doesn't show "track with" is an idiom, and dictionary definitions of track have similar meanings of "follow a path," which doesn't seem to fit here. What does this line mean?

I am putting a one-minute clip containing this line here, via Youtube. Extracting the context is tricky, as the segment cuts back and forth between two different scenes for artistic reasons. Therefore in order to avoid taking things out of context or presenting a confusing clip, I included a little bit of content that takes place before the line.

Best Answer

I've had a bit of deeper look into this. I found a version of the script (not sure how legal or safe that site is, so venture in at your own risk) and the word track is used three times. Two of those times are not the same as the phrase, so the film gives no previous definition of track to go on.

Initially I thought it might be a term related to the film industry, because Al Pacino is playing a failing/failed actor (Simon Axler). But Simon is a stage actor, not a film star, and the only film reference to track I could find was a "tracking shot" and I couldn't easily turn that into a relevant metaphor.

However, the words "does that track with" do appear in similar situations in various books. A few examples:

The last link there, I think, gives us the best interpretation for what Simon means when he asks "How does that track with you?".

To gain agreement, I ask questions such as:
"Does that make sense?" (my favorite)
"Does that track with your experience?"
"Do you see how this could work for you?"

I think this makes it clear that what Simon is asking his psychiatrist is "does this lesbian flirting with me make sense to you?"

Related Topic