Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To have dealings or commerce; traffic.
  • intransitive verb To exchange; barter.
  • intransitive verb To peddle.
  • noun The trading of goods or services without the exchange of money; barter.
  • noun Articles of commerce; trade goods.
  • noun Garden produce raised for the market.
  • noun Informal Worthless goods; stuff or rubbish.
  • noun Informal Dealings; business.
  • noun Any of various heavy motor vehicles designed for carrying or pulling loads.
  • noun A hand truck.
  • noun A wheeled platform, sometimes equipped with a motor, for conveying loads in a warehouse or freight yard.
  • noun A set of bookshelves mounted on four wheels or casters, used in libraries.
  • noun One of the swiveling frames of wheels under each end of a railroad car or trolley car.
  • noun Either of the frames housing a pair of wheels on a skateboard or landboard.
  • noun Nautical A small piece of wood placed at the top of a mast or flagpole, usually having holes through which halyards can be passed.
  • noun Chiefly British A railroad freight car without a top.
  • intransitive verb To transport by truck.
  • intransitive verb To carry goods by truck.
  • intransitive verb To drive a truck.
  • intransitive verb Slang To move or travel in a steady but easy manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To drive or use a truck; transport goods by means of a truck.
  • To exchange; swap; barter; hence, to traffic; deal; trade by exchanging commodities; bargain; negotiate: followed with with or for (with a person, for a thing).
  • To exchange; give in exchange; barter; swap: as, to truck knives for gold-dust.
  • To peddle; hawk.
  • noun Exchange of commodities; barter. See truck system, below.
  • noun Traffic; intercourse; dealing.
  • noun The truck system.
  • noun Commodities for barter or trade.
  • noun The produce of a market-garden.
  • noun A statute of 1870 (33 and 34 Vict., c. 105), also called the Truck Commission Act, which appointed a commission to inquire into the working of the act of 1831.
  • noun A small wooden wheel not bound with iron; a cylinder.
  • noun A wheeled vehicle, of which there are many kinds, used for moving or transporting burdens.
  • noun A group of two, three, or more pairs of wheels in one frame, for supporting one end of a railway-car or locomotive; a car-truck.
  • noun In gunnery, a circular piece of wood or metal, like a wheel, fixed on an axletree, for moving ordnance. See casemate-truck.
  • noun A circular piece of wood fixed on the head of each of a vessel's highest masts, and having small sheave-holes in it through which signal-halyards are rove.
  • To put in a truck; send or convey by truck: as, to truck cattle.
  • noun A kind of game (see etymology). Compare troco.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To exchange; to give in exchange; to barter.
  • noun A small wheel, as of a vehicle; specifically (Ord.), a small strong wheel, as of wood or iron, for a gun carriage.
  • noun A low, wheeled vehicle or barrow for carrying goods, stone, and other heavy articles.
  • noun (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.
  • noun A small wooden cap at the summit of a flagstaff or a masthead, having holes in it for reeving halyards through.
  • noun A small piece of wood, usually cylindrical or disk-shaped, used for various purposes.
  • noun engraving A freight car.
  • noun A frame on low wheels or rollers; -- used for various purposes, as for a movable support for heavy bodies.
  • noun a motorized vehicle larger than an automobile with a compartment in front for the driver, behind which is a separate compartment for freight

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English trukien, from Old North French troquer.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for truckle or from Latin trochus, iron hoop (from Greek trokhos, wheel).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English truken, troken, trukien, from Old English trucian ("to fail, run short, deceive, disappoint"), from Proto-Germanic *trukōnan (“to fail, miss, lack”), from Proto-Indo-European *dereu-, *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").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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"). More at thrutch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus ("iron hoop, wheel").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words (attested in mediaeval Latin trocare, present Spanish trocar), of Unknown origin.

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Examples

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  • This word is great as a verb (I feel the same about brook).

    December 11, 2006