Forms: 3 trukie, 5 trukke, 6–7 trucke, (7 trucque, 8 Sc. troak), 8–9 Sc. troke, trock, 9 Sc. troque, 6– truck. [ME. trukie, a. F. troquer to truck, shop, barter, exchange (Cotgr.), Norman-Picard form of OF. *trocher, in med.L. trocāre (1257 in Cartulary, Hatz.-Darm.), Fr. has also verbal sb. troc, † troq barter, Pg. troca = Sp., Pg. trocar, It. truccare (Florio, 1598): of unknown origin: see suggestions in Diez.
In 13th c., and in Promp. Parv., but rare before 1580].
1. trans. To give in exchange for something else; to exchange (one thing) for another; also, to exchange (a thing) with a person (also absol.).
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 408. Vndeore he makeð God, & to unwurð mid alle, þet for eni worldliche luue his luue trukie.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 5. And trukie for a mon of lam þe heuenliche lauerd.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. II. Babylon, 485. Trade … with hardy luck Doth words for words barter, exchange and truck.
1614. B. Jonson, Bart. Fair, II. vi. S’blood, how braue is he? in a garded coate? you were best trucke with him.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 105. To truck the Latine for any other vulgar Language, is but an ill barter.
1698. Farquhar, Love & Bottle, I. i. What, slighted! despised! my honourable love trucked for a whore!
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 23. Let him truck Jackets with any of his Barge-men.
1819. Keats, K. Stephen, I. iii. 11. I would not truck this brilliant day To rule in Pylos with a Nestor’s beard.
1827. Barrington, Pers. Sk., II. 305. Revolutions have been effected … dynasties annihilated, and kings trucked, with as little confusion as the exchanging a gig horse.
2. To exchange (commodities) for profit; to barter. Const. for a thing, with a person.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 503/2. Trukkon, roryn, or chaungyn, cambio, campso.
1588. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 329. They … brought with them many curious thinges … to truck for other thinges.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. ii. 80. They kept swine to truck and barter with other nations.
c. 1660. D. North, in R. North, Lives (1826), II. 306. The seamen trucked some tobacco with them for their capeaks, or furred caps.
1774. Phil. Trans., LXIV. 380. For blanketing, fire-arms … and ammunition, they truck the greatest part of their furs.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 40. My own stock being gone, I have trucked turnips for apples.
1884. St. James’ Gaz., 19 Dec., 4/1. When the smacksmen have no money he [the skipper] will tempt them to ‘truck’ the stores of their vessel.
fig. c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), III. 3. Since we are both agred to truck Intelligence [etc.].
a. 1774. Fergusson, Butterfly in Street, 41. How cou’d you troke the mavis’ note For ‘penny pies all piping hot’?
1896. J. Lumsden, Poems, 171. A’ the news the country offered Crinch for crinch they trockit thrang.
† b. To acquire by barter. Obs. rare.
1553. S. Cabot, Ordinances, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 261. All wares and commodities trucked, bought or giuen to the companie.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 326. Fiue or sixe pounds weight of siluer which he had trucked and traffiqued with Indians.
1631. J. Rous, Diary (Camden), 67. Fish, either bought or trucked at Norwich.
c. To dispose of to a person by barter. ? Obs.
1686. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 187. Nicho. Skull hath sould and trucked to and with ye Indians severall quantities of Liquors.
1755. T. Prince, Ann. New Eng., II. ii. (1826), 317. That no person give, sell, truck or send any Indian corn to any English out of this jurisdiction.
1819. Wiffen, Aonian Hours (1820), 47. No selfish ministers,… for place, Truck to a crown their dignity of mind.
† d. To deal or traffic in (a commodity). rare.
1715. Bentley, Serm., x. 358. The very Sins of the Living, the Wages of Damnation, were negotiated and truck’d by the wicked Politic of Popery.
† e. To carry about for sale; to hawk, peddle.
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, IV. ix. 157. We shewed him … the Cotton Yarn which we had trucked about the Country.
3. To barter away (what should be sacred or precious) for something unworthy; = BARTER v. 2 b.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cccxxviii. The Painted Apple, for his part In Paradice; France truck’t, for a faire face.
1706. De Foe, Jure Div., V. 9. Liberty’s too often truck’d for Gold.
a. 1726. W. Reeves, Serm. (1729), 160. He will not … truck his religion for preferment.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 374. Having trucked thy soul, brought home the fee.
1829. J. Sterling, Ess., etc. (1848), I. 124. Many of … the Spaniards … were willing to truck the independence of their country for the political benefits promised by the invaders.
b. To truck away: to dispose of by barter.
1631. Sanderson, Serm., Ad Aulam, i. (1666), II. 6. For the obtaining whereof they truck away their precious souls.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 119. His men … (for some Commodities useful to themselves) had truckt away the greatest part of his Bisket.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, iv. Wks. IX. 110. Some of our Kings have … trucked away, for foreign gold, the interests and glory of their crown.
4. intr. To trade by exchange of commodities; to barter. Const. for a thing with a person.
1594. [see TRUCKING vbl. sb.1].
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 227. Neither would they take money for their fruite but would trucke for olde shirtes or pieces of olde linnen breeches.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. N. Test., To Rdr. 3. Wee liue here as on the great Bursse and Exchange of the World, trucquing and trading as it were by the Merchant Waters thereof.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 41. Spaniards who lived there to truck with the Indians for gold.
1797. S. James, Narr. Voy., 162. He would either sell them to hin, or truck with him for any thing.
1854. R. G. Latham, Native Races Russian Emp., 181. Chinese … tobacco, for which they truck with the Russians.
5. intr. fig. or in fig. context: To bargain or deal for a commodity, with a person; to negotiate; also to have dealings in, to trade; esp. of dealings of an underhand or improper character: to traffic.
1615. Jackson, Creed, IV. III. vii. § 6. A city which is above, whose commodities cannot be purchased with gold or silver … much less may we truck for them with our unclean worldly delights.
1640. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 122. He hath most unworthily trucked and chaffered in the meanest of them.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann., vi. (1658), 500. [She] trucked with the army … and brought it over to her husband as her dowry.
1664. in Howell, State Trials (1816), VI. 607. Here is Wild commits a robbery, you come and truck with Wild, and agree with him that Mr. Tryon shall let him go.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Election, Poems (1845), 43. Ye louns! that troke in doctors’ stuff.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xxxi. She must go on troking wi’ the old carrier, as if there was no post-house in the neighbourhood.
1904. Daily News, 7 Dec. 11. Private communities have no business to ‘truck with’ the State.
b. In weakened sense: To have dealings or intercourse with, to have to do with, be on familiar terms; † spec. of sexual intercourse. Now dial.
1622. F. Markham, Bk. War, II. iv. 54. If he haue … the vnderstanding of other Languages he is an inestimable Iuell, for so he shall be able to trucke with strangers for the benefit of his Company.
1624. Massinger, Parl. Love, II. i. Truck with old ladies That nature hath given o’er.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Mixt Assembly, 86. If they two truck together, ’twill not be A Child-birth, but a Goal-delivery.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. Quack, 95. Wrinkled witches, when they truck with hell.
1719. Hamilton, Ep. to Ramsay, 24 July, v. To troke with thee I’d best forbear ’t.
1787. W. Taylor, Poems, 132. Me … wuss me hae never Enbowr see, Nor wi’ sic Lady trockit.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xi. He held ower muckle troking and communing wi’ that Meg Merrilies, wha was the maist notorious witch in a’ Galloway.
1893–4. Northumbld. Gloss., Troke, to truck, to negotiate with, to be on familiar terms.
6. intr. To walk about on petty business; to potter. Sc.
1864. Gilfillan, Jrnl., in Watson, Life (1892), 384. I troked about Edinburgh for a day or two.
1871. W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb, xxxix. Tak’ a girse parkie or twa, an’ trock aboot amo’ nowte beasts.
1892. Stevenson & L. Osbourne, Wrecker, vi. Going troking across a continent on a wild goose chase.
1894. Traikings and trokings [see traiking s.v. TRAIK v.].
7. trans. To pay (an employee) otherwise than in money; to pay or deal with on the truck system (with the implication of profiting by the transaction). Also intr.
1871. A. S. Harvey, in Gd. Words, 610. A large proportion of the trade is in the hands of middlemen, called ‘foggers,’—those who truck being known as ‘pettifoggers,’—each of whom employs a certain number of nailmakers. Ibid., 614. He … works on,… trucked by the same merchant from boyhood to manhood, from manhood to old age. Ibid., 615. The very paupers used to be ‘trucked,’ the inspectors … gave the paupers their relief in kind.
1879. Escott, England, I. 265. 25,000 hands are employed, and, speaking roughly, about 14,000 are trucked.
† 8. intr. = TRUCKLE v. 2 a. Obs. rare.
1665. Surv. Aff. Netherl., 174. Their Towns … ready to submit to any new Masters, rather than Truck under Amsterdam.
1674. Staveley, Rom. Horseleach, Ep. Ded. Amsterdam supplanted Antwerp,—Flanders trucked under Holland.
Hence Trucking ppl. a., that trucks or barters.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. ii. (1869), I. 16. This same trucking disposition … originally gives occasion to the division of labour.
1871. A. S. Harvey, in Gd. Words, 611. In the hosiery trade the trucking middlemen undersell the cash-paying masters.
