truck Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an automotive vehicle suitable for hauling
    motortruck.
  2. noun a handcart that has a frame with two low wheels and a ledge at the bottom and handles at the top; used to move crates or other heavy objects
    hand truck.
  3. verb convey (goods etc.) by truck
    • truck fresh vegetables across the mountains

WordNet

Truck noun
Etymology
L. trochus an iron hoop, Gr. a wheel, fr. to run. See Trochee, and cf. Truckle, v. i.
Definitions
  1. A small wheel, as of a vehicle; specifically (Ord.), a small strong wheel, as of wood or iron, for a gun carriage.
  2. A low, wheeled vehicle or barrow for carrying goods, stone, and other heavy articles.
    Goods were conveyed about the town almost exclusively in trucks drawn by dogs. Macaulay.
  3. (Railroad Mach.) A swiveling carriage, consisting of a frame with one or more pairs of wheels and the necessary boxes, springs, etc., to carry and guide one end of a locomotive or a car; -- sometimes called bogie in England. Trucks usually have four or six wheels.
  4. (Naut.) (a) A small wooden cap at the summit of a flagstaff or a masthead, having holes in it for reeving halyards through. (b) A small piece of wood, usually cylindrical or disk-shaped, used for various purposes.
  5. A freight car. Eng.
  6. A frame on low wheels or rollers; -- used for various purposes, as for a movable support for heavy bodies. 7. A wheeled vehicle for carrying freight; esp. (a) motorized vehicle larger than an automobile with a compartment in front for the driver, behind which is a separate compartment for the freight. A truck may have an inflexible body, or may be jointed as is a tractor-trailer. (b) A vehicle with a short body and a support for attaching a trailer; -- also called a tractor. The combination of tractor and trailer, is called a tractor-trailer (a form of articulated vehicle), and is used primarily for hauling freight on a highway. <-- Truck, n. 1. barter. 2. commodidites for barter or fro small trade. 3. asslociation, interaction, or connection, as in "I'll have no truck with the likes of them." 4. payment of wages in goods, rahther than casj. 5. vegetable grown for market, as in truck farm. 6. small articles of little value. [All from MW10. No comparable definitions in W1913!] -->
Truck transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To transport on a truck or trucks.
Truck transitive verb
Etymology
OE. trukken,F. troquer; akin to Sp. & Pg. trocar; of uncertain origin.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Trucked ; present participle & verbal noun trucking
Definitions
  1. To exchange; to give in exchange; to barter; as, to truck knives for gold dust.
    We will begin by supposing the international trade to be in form, what it always is in reality, an actual trucking of one commodity against another. J. S. Mill.
Truck intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To exchange commodities; to barter; to trade; to deal.
    A master of a ship, who deceived them under color of trucking with them. Palfrey.
    Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster. Burke.
    To truck and higgle for a private good. Emerson.
Truck noun
Etymology
Cf. F. troc.
Definitions
  1. Exchange of commodities; barter. Hakluyt.
  2. Commodities appropriate for barter, or for small trade; small commodities; esp., in the United States, garden vegetables raised for the market. Colloq.
  3. The practice of paying wages in goods instead of money; -- called also truck system.

Webster 1913