truck

Etymology 1

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

noun

1. A small wheel or roller, specifically the wheel of a gun carriage.
   “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.” 1843, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 3, in Wyandotte
2. The ball on top of a flagpole.
3. (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".
4. (countable, uncountable, US, Australia) A heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods or to pull a semi-trailer designed to carry goods.
   Mexican open-bed trucks haul most of the fresh produce that comes into the United States from Mexico.
   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. 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 1, in Babbit
   That's why driving truck became more than a job for many in the industry. Driving truck was a lifestyle. 2009, James Beach, Peterbilt: Long-Haul Legend, page 48
5. (road transport, Singapore, Malaysia) A lorry with a closed or covered carriage.
6. (UK, rail transport) A railroad car, chiefly one designed to carry goods
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.
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.
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.
    Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck? 1876, Mark Twain, chapter I, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

verb

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.
   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. October 1974, Skiing, volume 27, number 2, page 194
   Instead, when relatives heard that the right ship had docked, they trucked over to Ellis Island and waited desperately by the Kissing Post. May 20, 2009, Maggie Koerth-Baker, “Ten important kisses in history”, in Mental Floss, CNN
   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 […] Aug 12, 2022, Lee Valentine Smith, “Athens band still Squallin' after all these years”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4. (intransitive, US, Canada, slang) To persist, to endure.
   Keep on trucking!
   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[…] 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
   “What's ol' Harrison up to these days, Larry?” Grandpa asked. “Oh, he's still trucking along,” Uncle Larry replied. 2018-09-04, Brittany Terwilliger, The Insatiables, Amberjack Publishing
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.
   Both deputies were big, made of dense flesh and tough experience. . . . I wouldn't have wanted to truck with either one of them. 1993, Sue Grafton, "J" Is for Judgment
7. (transitive, slang) To run over or through a tackler in American football.

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”).

verb

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.

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

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

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

noun

1. (obsolete, often in the plural) Small, humble items; things, often for sale or barter.
   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. 1884, Mark Twain, chapter 20, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
   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. 1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 5, in Dawn O'Hara, the Girl who Laughed
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).
   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. November 4, 1792, George Washington, (Please provide the book title or journal name), quoted in The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: Volume 32, 1745-1799.
   "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. 1903, Joel Chandler Harris, chapter 11, in "Brother Rabbit's Cradle", New Stories of the Old Plantation
   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. 1923, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Moon Maid
4. (usually with negative) Social intercourse; dealings, relationships.