Also 7 trucke. [app. deriv. of L. trochus = Gr. τροχός: see TROCHUS, or short for TRUCKLE, a. AF. trokle:—L. trochlea.]
1. A small solid wooden wheel or roller; spec. Naut. one of those on which the carriages of ships’ guns were formerly mounted.
1611. Florio, Rigolo, a little wheele vsed vnder sleds. Gunners call it a trucke.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiv. 65. If for Sea she [gun carriage] haue Trucks, which are round intier peeces of wood like wheeles.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. xxii. 269. Those Priests had erected a Scaffold on two Axle-trees, that had Trucks fitted for them like the Carriage of Ship Guns.
1860. All Year Round, No. 67. 404. At another of the guns, a shot came in and took off the truck (or, as a shore-going person would say, ‘the wheel’).
1883. [implied in truck gun, 4].
2. Naut. A circular or square cap of wood fixed on the head of a mast or flag-staff, usually with small holes or sheaves for halliards.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 13. The maine top gallant sayle yeard, the trucke or flagge staffe. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., iv. 18. The Trucke is a square peece of wood at the top wherein you put the Flag-staffe.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 414. At our Main-top-mast head, on the very top of the truck of the Spindle.
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 429. What surprise he declar’d at the Boy on the truck!
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, viii. 18. We painted her, both inside and out, from the truck to the water’s edge.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 192. The second mate … ordered me to go up and reeve the signal halliards in the mizzen truck.
b. One of the small wooden blocks through which the rope of a parrel is threaded to prevent its being frayed against the mast. c. See quot. c. 1635. d. A similar block lashed to the shrouds to form a guide or fair-leader for running rigging.
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), s.v., Those little round thinges of Wood which belong to the Parrells, are called Trucks.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 20. Parrels are little round Balls called Trucks, and little peeces of wood called ribs, and ropes.
c. 1635. Capt. N. Boteler, Dial. Sea Services, iv. (1685), 236. When the Maincapstan is not able to purchase in the Cable … they use to take a Hawser, and open a Strond thereof, and so put in Nippers, (which are small Ropes with a small Truck at one end) and with them they bind fast this Hawser to the Cable.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xv. (Roxb.), 42/1. The Trucks are the little round things of wood made with holes through, to turne vpon a rope as aforesaid.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 135. Trucks for Shrouds—42.
3. A wheeled vehicle for carrying heavy weights; variously applied. a. A strong flat open trolley for carrying blocks of stone or the like; a lorry. b. A light two-wheeled hand-propelled vehicle; a hand-cart. c. An open railway wagon. d. A bogie truck; = BOGIE 2. e. A low barrow of various types, with one to four wheels; as that used on railway platforms for moving luggage, etc. f. A small barrow, with two stout low wheels and a projecting plate or lip in front, used for moving sacks or other heavy packages.
1774. Hull Dock Act, 46. Any truck or cart, sledge waggon, dray.
1815. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 47/2. A baker’s boy was wheeling his truck of bread along the road.
1838. N. Wood, Railroads, 209. Truck for the conveyance of general merchandise.
1843. Proc. Inst. Civil Eng., 99. A ‘bogie’ engine, having a four-wheeled truck to support one end of the boiler.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., ix. There were more trucks near Todgers’s than you would suppose a whole city could ever need.
1866. R. M. Ballantyne, Shift. Winds, xxiv. (1881), 274. Porters are hurrying to and fro with luggage on trucks.
1888. F. Hume, Mme. Midas, I. v. Another truck was waiting to take it to the main shaft, from whence it went up to the puddlers.
4. attrib. and Comb., as truck-barrow, -boy, construction, -driver, -horse, -load, -man, -porter, -proprietor, -wagon, -wheel; truck-like adj.; truck-bolster, the cross-beam of a bogie truck on which the weight of the carriage rests (Cent. Dict., 1891); truck-gun, a gun mounted on trucks (see sense 1); truck-jack: see quot.; truck-light, in the U.S. Navy, a mast-head signalling light; truck-windlass, a windlass mounted on a truck (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895).
1849. Craig, *Truck-barrow, in Ropemaking, a sort of barrow with three wheels, used to take hauls of yarn from the yarn-house.
1900. Engineering Mag., XIX. 705. Castings keep coming in until there is a perfect wilderness of them piled about, through which the *truck-boy winds his tortuous way.
1901. Daily News, 16 Jan., 6/5. Colossal expenditure on track improvements, *truck construction, and increased power of locomotives. Ibid. (1907), 17 April, 4. All sorts and conditions of people,… business men, *truck drivers, workgirls, policemen, Army men, everybody. Ibid. (1883), 31 Aug., 6/6. One of the old class of corvettes with *truck guns.
1894. S. Fiske, Holiday Stories (1900), 21. What does it cost to keep a *truck-horse?
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Truck-jack, a lifting-jack suspended from a truck-axle to lift logs or other objects so that they may be loaded on to a sled or other low-bodied vehicle.
18[?]. Army & Navy Reg. (U.S.A.), XXIV. 277 (Cent. Supp.). *Truck-light.
1895. Daily News, 8 April, 6/4. The third-class passenger for a long time had to be content with a *truck-like carriage, with low sides, and seldom roofed.
1862. Sat. Rev., 18 Feb., 157. The great London firms have sent off many railway *truck-loads of their publications.
1787. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 306. By them … licensing retailers, taverns, carters, *truckmen,… are regulated.
1854. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Eloquence, Wks. (Bohn), III. 192. Ought not the scholar to be able to convey his meaning in terms as … strong as the porter or truckman uses to convey his?
1901. Scotsman, 11 April, 8/1. The truck-man … delivered the gold from the Assay office to the steamship.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 351/2. At Baddeck our camping outfit was packed upon a *truck-wagon.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 423. The motion given to the *truck-wheels of the spinning-machine.
1909. Daily Chron., 25 Sept., 7/6. Lad wanted for *truck work.
Hence Truckful, as much as fills or loads a truck.
1893. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 12 Oct. Cigars are pouring in by the truckful and the cigarettes are innumerable.
1900. Daily News, 1 Aug., 6/6. The truckful of sick and wounded left at Bloemfontein Station.
