sb. Also trawley. [? f. TROLL v.; cf. lorry, rolley, rulley.]
1. Locally applied to a low cart of various kinds, e.g., a costermonger’s cart; at Yarmouth, a narrow cart or sledge adapted for the ‘rows’ or narrow alleys (ROW sb.1 4 c). Cf. TROLL sb.1 5 and trolley-cart in 4 below.
1823. Moor, Suffolk Words, s.v., Sich roads! We got rarely jounced i’ the trolly.
1870. Pall Mall G., 25 Aug., 4. The prisoner was leading his horse in a trolly along Fairfield-road, Bow.
2. A low truck without sides or ends, esp. one with flanged wheels for running on a railway, or a track of rails in a factory, etc. Cf. BOGIE 1.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Trolley, a kind of railway vehicle.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 201. The goods in the London Docks are hauled in trollies, waggons or hand-barrows from ship to ship.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib., xix. I’ll send in a trolley of coal.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., s.v., The two-wheeled trolly is used in a rolling-mill to wheel the puddle-balls to the squeezer.
1881. H. W. Nicholson, From Sword to Share, xxv. 182. The train … was made up of some dozen sideless trucks, or trawleys.
1885. Law Times, 16 May, 47/1. A porter … put all the luggage on a trolley … and wheeled the trolley on to the platform.
3. A grooved metallic pulley that travels along, and receives current from, an overhead electric wire, the current being then conveyed by a trolley-pole or other conductor to a motor, usually that of a car on a street railroad; also called trolley-wheel (see 4). Also applied to any pulley running along an overhead track, as in a trolley-scale (see 4).
1891. in Cent. Dict.
1902. Sloane, Stand. Electr. Dict., s.v., Trolleys are principally used on electric railroads.
1909. Cent. Dict. Suppl., s.v. Abattoir scales, The meat, suspended from hooks attached to a trolley traveling on a telpherage system or overhead track, is run upon a short section of track which forms the weighing-platform of the scales…. Another form of scale employs a trolley for weighing materials in transit, with a scale-beam attached directly to the trolley and traveling with it. Called a trolley-scale.
b. Short for trolley-car: see 4. U.S.
1891. Month, LXXIII. 24. I jumped off the trolley.
1908. Daily Chron., 20 Jan., 4/4. To go anywhere in Boston you must take a tram … (they call it a trolley).
4. attrib. and Comb., as trolley-journey, -load, system; trolley-bar = trolley-pole; trolley-car (U.S.), an electric car driven by means of a trolley (see 3); trolley-cart (local), a Yarmouth trolley (see 1); trolley coal, coal conveyed on trolleys or street trucks for sale; trolley-ear, trolley-hanger, a contrivance for supporting and insulating a trolley-wire; trolley-frog (see quot.); trolley-harp, trolley-head, the holder at the end of a trolley-pole that supports the trolley-wheel; trolley-hook, a hook used for replacing a trolley-wheel when it slips off the wire (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895); trolley-line, a line of electric cars run by means of trolleys (ibid.); trolleyman, a man employed to drive a trolley or a trolley-car; trolley-pole, a hinged pole on an electric car, supporting the trolley (see 3), and conveying the current from the overhead wire; trolley-rail, a rail conveying current to the motors on an electric railway; trolley-road, an electric tram-line worked on the trolley system (U.S.); trolley-scale, a scale for weighing meat or other commodities, in which the scale-beam is attached to a trolley travelling on an overhead track, as in a market or warehouse; trolley-wheel = sense 3; trolley-wire, an overhead electric wire supplying current to the trolleys of electric cars.
1891. Pall Mall G., 30 Oct., 6/2. On the top of the car is a *‘trolley bar.’
1895. Pop. Sci. Monthly, April, 758. The lazy barges will perhaps rival in bustle the *trolley car on land.
1865. Daily Tel., 25 Aug. Yarmouth ingenuity … hit upon the notion of the *‘trolly cart’ … a sledge, about 12 ft. long, but not much more than a yard in breadth, mounted upon wheels less than 3 ft. high.
1890. Daily News, 18 March, 4/6. They further increased the price of house coal by 2s. a ton, and *trolly coal by 1s. 6d. per ton.
1898. Houston, Dict. Electr., *Trolley Ear, a metal piece supported by an insulator to which the trolley wire is fastened. *Trolley Frog, the device to which the trolley wire is attached, employed for causing a car to deviate from one line to another. Ibid., s.v. Hanger, A *trolley hanger on a straight trolley line.
1904. Electr. World & Engin., 18 June, 1167. *Trolley harp.
1896. A. Morrison, Child of the Jago, 190. To start … on a *trolley-journey.
1898. Daily News, 22 Oct., 3/5. A *trolley-load of foreign silks, velvets, and fancy woollen goods. Ibid. (1897), 23 Feb., 7/4. The number on strike at Sunderland is 111. including 51 *trolleymen. Ibid. (1900), 11 June, 3/2. The strike of street trolley (electric tramcar) men [at St. Louis].
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., *Trolley-pole.
1897. Daily News, 19 July, 8/4. The electricity is transmitted to the motors on the car by means of trolley poles, or ‘fishing rods,’ which … glide along the wire as the car runs.
1897. Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin., 355. *Trolley-rail.
1895. Information, 6 July, 3/2. This electric railroad is practically a very heavy and substantially built *trolley road. The trolley wire … is hung from very heavy poles.
1909. *Trolley-scale [see 3].
1892. Daily News, 4 Oct., 5/1. An intra-mural elevated railway is being constructed…. Its cars will be moved by electric traction on the *‘trolley’ system.
1891. Pall Mall G., 30 Oct., 6/2. A small grooved *‘trolley wheel’ … runs against the under side of the overhead wire.
1895. *Trolley wire [see trolley road].
Hence Trolley v., trans. to convey by trolley; intr. to travel by trolley; Trolleyful, as much or many as a trolley will hold; Trolleyize v. trans. to adapt to the trolley system, as a tram-line (U.S.).
1869. Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Oct., 7/1. It [the cane] was then trollied up to the mill, and when its quality was discovered, it had to be trollied back to the river.
1882. W. E. Baxter, Winter in India, viii. 84. Mr. Prestage … had arranged that we should be *‘trollied’ down the mountains instead of going in the train.
1900. Daily News, 21 March, 5/4. These two officers trollied along the line … till they got close to Springfontein Station. Ibid. (1900), 21 May, 4/1. A procession of three hundred young men dragging a *trolleyful of ladies.
1895. Pop. Sci. Monthly, April, 751. Every species of tramway … becomes *trolleyized.
