truck

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See also: Truck

English

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A truck (motor vehicle)
A hand truck
A railcar truck (US)
An old mining truck

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus (“iron hoop, wheel”) from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós).

Noun

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truck (countable and uncountable, plural trucks)

  1. A small wheel or roller, specifically the wheel of a gun carriage.
    • 1843, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 3, in Wyandotte‎[1]:
      “Put that cannon up once, and I'll answer for it that no Injin faces it. 'Twill be as good as a dozen sentinels,” answered Joel. “As for mountin’, I thought of that before I said a syllable about the crittur. There's the new truck-wheels in the court, all ready to hold it, and the carpenters can put the hinder part to the whull, in an hour or two.”
  2. The ball on top of a flagpole.
  4. (nautical) On a wooden mast, a circular disc (or sometimes a rectangle) of wood near or at the top of the mast, usually with holes or sheaves to reeve signal halyards; also a temporary or emergency place for a lookout. "Main" refers to the mainmast, whereas a truck on another mast may be called (on the mizzenmast, for example) "mizzen-truck".
  5. (countable, uncountable, US, Canada, Australia) A heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods or to pull a semi-trailer designed to carry goods; (in Malaysia/Singapore) a such vehicle with a closed or covered carriage
    Synonyms: rig, (if a lighter truck) pickup truck, (if used to pull a semitrailer) semi-trailer truck, (chiefly British; in Singapore usually referring to a smaller vehicle) lorry
    Mexican open-bed trucks haul most of the fresh produce that comes into the United States from Mexico.
    • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 1, in Babbit‎[2]:
      A line of fifty trucks from the Zenith Steel and Machinery Company was attacked by strikers-rushing out from the sidewalk, pulling drivers from the seats, smashing carburetors and commutators, while telephone girls cheered from the walk, and small boys heaved bricks.
    • 2009, James Beach, Peterbilt: Long-Haul Legend‎[3], page 48:
      That's why driving truck became more than a job for many in the industry. Driving truck was a lifestyle.
  6. (UK, rail transport) A railroad car, chiefly one designed to carry goods
    Synonyms: goods wagon, freight wagon, goods carriage, freight carriage, goods truck, freight truck, (North American English:) freight car
  7. Any smaller wagon/cart or vehicle of various designs, pushed or pulled by hand or (obsolete) pulled by an animal, used to move and sometimes lift goods, like those in hotels for moving luggage or in libraries for moving books.
    Hyponyms: hand truck, pallet truck, forklift truck
  8. (US, rail transport) Abbreviation of railroad truck or wheel truck; a pivoting frame, one attached to the bottom of the bed of a railway car at each end, that rests on the axle and which swivels to allow the axle (at each end of which is a solid wheel) to turn with curves in the track.
    Synonym: (British English) bogie
  9. The part of a skateboard or roller skate that joins the wheels to the deck, consisting of a hanger, baseplate, kingpin, and bushings, and sometimes mounted with a riser in between.
  10. (theater) A platform with wheels or casters.
  11. Dirt or other messiness.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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See also
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Verb

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truck (third-person singular simple present trucks, present participle trucking, simple past and past participle trucked)

  1. (intransitive) To drive a truck.
    My father has been trucking for 20 years.
  2. (transitive) To convey by truck.
    Last week, Cletus trucked 100 pounds of lumber up to Dubuque.
  3. (intransitive, US, slang) To travel, to proceed. [1960s]
    • 1974 October, Skiing, volume 27, number 2, page 194:
      I brought them around again, hard, and some fluff hit me in the face, cool and wet. . .and I laughed and trucked on down, a mad. fiddler dancing to my own music, happy and alone in my private white world.
    • 2009 May 20, Maggie Koerth-Baker, “Ten important kisses in history”, in Mental Floss, CNN:
      Instead, when relatives heard that the right ship had docked, they trucked over to Ellis Island and waited desperately by the Kissing Post.
    • 2022 August 12, Lee Valentine Smith, “Athens band still Squallin' after all these years”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
      In November 1978, Hay and Starratt trucked on down toward the Classic City in a VW Van (of course), following the Grateful Dead's tour […]
  4. (intransitive, US, Canada, slang) To persist, to endure. [from 1960s]
    Keep on trucking!
    • 1988, Krista Brown, Prepared Statement, to the United States House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, regarding 'Eating Disorders: The Impact on Children and Families', July 31, 1987, page 22:
      It has been five months since I left Mt. Diablo , and I'm still trucking along gaining slowly and I'm just a few pounds from my goal healthy weight. I'm the happiest I've been in my life because through my experiences with anorexia I […]
    • 2018 September 4, Brittany Terwilliger, The Insatiables, Amberjack Publishing, →ISBN:
      “What's ol' Harrison up to these days, Larry?” Grandpa asked. “Oh, he's still trucking along,” Uncle Larry replied.
  5. (intransitive, film production) To move a camera parallel to the movement of the subject.
  6. (transitive, slang) To fight or otherwise physically engage with.
    • 1993, Sue Grafton, "J" Is for Judgment:
      Both deputies were big, made of dense flesh and tough experience. . . . I wouldn't have wanted to truck with either one of them.
  7. (transitive, slang) To run over or through a tackler in American football.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English truken, troken, trukien, from Old English trucian (“to fail, run short, deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-West Germanic *trokōn (“to fail, miss, lack”), from Proto-Indo-European *derew-, *derwu- (“to tear, wrap, reap”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split”). Cognate with Middle Low German troggelen (“to cheat, deceive, swindle”), Dutch troggelen (“to extort”), German dialectal truggeln (“to flatter, fawn”).

Alternative forms

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Verb

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truck (third-person singular simple present trucks, present participle trucking, simple past and past participle trucked)

  1. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To fail; run out; run short; be unavailable; diminish; abate.
  2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To give in; give way; knuckle under; truckle.
  3. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To deceive; cheat; defraud.
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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From dialectal truck, truk, trokk, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Norwegian dialectal trokka, trakka (“to stamp, trample, go to and fro”), Danish trykke (“to press, press down, crush, squeeze”), Swedish trycka. More at thrutch.

Verb

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truck (third-person singular simple present trucks, present participle trucking, simple past and past participle trucked)

  1. (transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To tread (down); stamp on; trample (down).

Etymology 4

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From Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words, from Latin trocāre, from Frankish *trokan. Related to Etymology 2.

Verb

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truck (third-person singular simple present trucks, present participle trucking, simple past and past participle trucked)

  2. (transitive) To trade, exchange; barter.
  3. (intransitive) To engage in commerce; to barter or deal.
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman 1988 edition:
      But while this businesse was in hand, Arrived one Captaine Argall, and Master Thomas Sedan, sent by Master Cornelius to truck with the Collony [...]
  4. (intransitive) To have dealings or social relationships with; to engage with.
Translations
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Noun

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truck (plural trucks)

  1. (obsolete, often in the plural) Small, humble items; things, often for sale or barter.
    • 1884, Mark Twain, chapter 20, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn‎[5]:
      There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of watermelons and green corn and such-like truck.
    • 1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 5, in Dawn O'Hara, the Girl who Laughed‎[6]:
      It happened in this way, on a day when I was indulging in a particularly greenery-yallery fit of gloom. Norah rushed into my room. I think I was mooning over some old papers, or letters, or ribbons, or some such truck in the charming, knife-turning way that women have when they are blue.
  2. (historical) The practice of paying workers in kind, or with tokens only exchangeable at a shop owned by the employer [forbidden in the 19th century by the Truck Acts].
  3. (US, often attributive) Garden produce, groceries (see truck garden).
    • 1792 November 4, George Washington, (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[7], quoted in The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: Volume 32, 1745-1799.:
      As the home house people (the industrious part of them at least) might want ground for their truck patches, they might, for this purpose, cultivate what would be cleared. But I would have the ground from the cross fence by the Spring, quite round by the Wharf, first grubbed, before the (above mentioned) is attempted.
    • 1903, Joel Chandler Harris, chapter 11, in "Brother Rabbit's Cradle", New Stories of the Old Plantation‎[8]:
      "Wid dat, Brer Rabbit 'low dat Mr. Man done been had 'im hired fer ter take keer er his truck patch, an' keep out de minks, de mush-rats an' de weasels.
    • 1923, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Moon Maid‎[9]:
      I obtained my first view of a lunar city. It was built around a crater, and the buildings were terraced back from the rim, the terraces being generally devoted to the raising of garden truck and the principal fruit-bearing trees and shrubs.
  4. (usually with negative) Social intercourse; dealings, relationships.
    • 1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Strange Story of Jonathan Small”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 240:
      "How can I decide?" said I. "You have not told me what you want of me. But I tell you now that if it is anything against the safety of the fort I will have no truck with it, so you can drive home your knife and welcome."
  5. (usually with negative) Relevance, bearing.
    • 1983 December 17, Kenneth Hale-Wehmann, “Coming Out on Record: A Triumph in Gay Music”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 22, page 15:
      Many people involved in classical music today, themselves gay, see no reason why their sexuality should have any truck in their music.
    • 2001 January 19, Hank Stuever, “A Fantasy as Big As All Texas”, in Washington Post:
      For this reason, Washington is a wonderful and proven humbler of the Texan conceit: Washington isn't a state, and yet it is metaphorically bigger than Texas. It's where Texas learns that not everyone is in love with Texas. (Where yer from orig'nally has no truck here.)
Usage notes
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  • For this etymology, the word is virtually obsolete. It really only survives as a fossil in the construction to have no truck with. In the US, the derived term truck garden is often confused with "produce raised to be trucked (transported) to market".
Derived terms
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Danish

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Noun

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truck (singular definite trucken, plural indefinite truckene)

  1. (anglicism, rare) A heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods
    Synonym: lastbil
  2. Abbreviation of gaffeltruck; A forklift truck

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English truck.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /tryk/, /trʏk/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: truck

Noun

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truck m (plural trucks, diminutive truckje n)

  1. truck, lorry (heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods)
    Hyponyms: heftruck, monstertruck, (Belgium) pickuptruck, vrachtwagen, vrachtauto, camion
    • 1981, “Ik heb ’n truck als m’n woning”‎[10]performed by Henk Wijngaard:
      Ik voel me rijk als een koning:
      Ik heb een truck als mijn woning.
      I feel as rich as a king:
      I have a truck as my apartment.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Caribbean Javanese: trig

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English truck.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /tʁɔk/, (France) /tʁœk/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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truck m (plural trucks)

  1. (North America) A heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods
    Synonym: camion

Further reading

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Noun

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truck m (definite singular trucken, indefinite plural trucker, definite plural truckene)

  1. (anglicism) Abbreviation of gaffeltruck; A forklift truck (used to move and lift goods)
  2. Abbreviation of palletruck; A (power-driven) pallet jack
    Synonym: snile

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Noun

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truck m (definite singular trucken, indefinite plural truckar, definite plural truckane)

  1. (anglicism) Abbreviation of gaffeltruck; A forklift truck (used to move and lift goods)

Swedish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English truck.

Noun

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truck c

  1. (anglicism) Abbreviation of gaffeltruck; A forklift truck (used to move and lift goods)
    Hyponym: motviktstruck
  2. Abbreviation of handtruck; A pallet jack
    Synonyms: palltruck, palldragare, pallvagn

Declension

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Declension of truck
nominative genitive
singular indefinite truck trucks
definite trucken truckens
plural indefinite truckar truckars
definite truckarna truckarnas

See also

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References

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