truck

English Online Dictionary. What means truck‎? What does truck mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹʌk/, [tɹʌk], (chiefly US) [t͡ʃɹʌk]
• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /tɹʊk/
• Rhymes: -ʌk

Etymology 1

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

Noun

truck (countable and uncountable, plural trucks)

1. A small wheel or roller, specifically the wheel of a gun carriage.
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
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 or 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

Descendants

Translations

See also

• (nautical, sailing) main-truck, crow's nest
• (military) gun-carriage
• (semi-tractor): semi, trailer truck, rig, monster truck

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To drive a truck.

2. (transitive) To convey by truck.
3. (intransitive, US, slang) To travel, to proceed. [1960s]
4. (intransitive, US, Canada, slang) To persist, to endure. [from 1960s]
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.
7. (transitive, slang) To run over or through a tackler in American football.

Derived terms

• keep on trucking
• trucker
• trucking

Translations

Etymology 2

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

• trock

Verb

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

• trucker
• trucking
• truckle
• trucky

Related terms

• atroke
• troke

Etymology 3

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

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

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

Verb

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.
4. (intransitive) To have dealings or social relationships with; to engage with.

Translations

Noun

truck (plural trucks)

1. (obsolete, often in the plural) Small, humble items; things, often for sale or barter.
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).
4. (usually with negative) Social intercourse; dealings, relationships.
5. (usually with negative) Relevance, bearing.

Usage notes

• 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

• have no truck with
• truck garden

Danish

Noun

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

Etymology

Borrowed from English truck.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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

Derived terms

• heftruck
• monstertruck
• truckbestuurder
• trucker
• vorkheftruck

Descendants

• → Caribbean Javanese: trig

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English truck.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɔk/, (France) /tʁœk/

Noun

truck m (plural trucks)

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

   Synonym: camion

Further reading

• “truck”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

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

Noun

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

Etymology

Borrowed from English truck.

Noun

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

See also

• lastbil

References

• truck in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• truck in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• truck in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)