Also 8 Sc. trockle. [f. truckle in TRUCKLE-BED.]
† 1. intr. To sleep in a truckle-bed. Const. under (beneath) the person occupying the high bed, or the high bed itself. Also fig. Obs.
1613. Beaum. & Fl., Coxcomb, I. vi. I’ll truckle here, boy; give me another pillow.
1655. R. Boreman, Mirr. Mercy & Judgm., 21. Who had the custody of him at the house of master Foster, Keeper of the Prison, and truckled under him every night.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 399. [St. Paul’s] having a large Church … truckling, as one may say, under her Chancel.
1658. E. Phillips, Gard. Tulips, 51. The Knight keeps to his Lady in the high bed, and never truckles.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 21. Such a kind of somewhatkin, as truckles beneath the very tinyness of an half nothing.
2. fig. † a. To take a subordinate or inferior position; to be subservient, to submit, to give precedence. Const. under, to. Obs.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 2 Sept. He will never … truckle under any body or any faction, but do just as his own reason and judgment directs.
1671. Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 395. We truckle to France in all things, to the prejudice of our honour.
1681. Evelyn, Lett. to Pepys, 5 Dec., in Mem. (1819), II. 216. Unlesse it be, that we designe to truckle under France.
c. 1704. T. Brown, Praise Poverty, Wks. 1730, I. 92. Publick good is made to truckle to private gain.
1738. trans. Guazzo’s Art Conversation, 66. Where Sense imperious bears the Sway, Reason must truckle and obey.
b. To submit from an unworthy motive; to yield meanly or obsequiously; to act with servility. Const. down, to a person, for an object.
1680. C. Nesse, Church-Hist., 285. His sordid spirit truckles and crouches.
a. 1715. Earl Halifax, Man of Hon., Poems (1779), 226. Those that meanly truckle to your power.
1789. Parr, Tracts Warburton, etc., 184. He was … too proud to truckle to a Superior. Ibid. (1809), Char. Fox, Wks. 1828, IV. 111. Ambition … which … truckles for office by the barter of principle.
1842. Thackeray, Miss Tickletoby, ix. These nobles … were the first to truckle down to him when he came to assert … his right.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xiv. 223. The short years which might have been his, had he … denied his faith and truckled to the time.
1885. R. L. & F. Stevenson, Dynamiter, i. Doubtful people of all sorts and conditions begging and truckling for your notice.
c. To submit or give way timidly; in quot. 1840, to quail, cower, be daunted.
1837. Campbell, Hybrias, i. With these I make … all around me truckle.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxiii. Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words.
a. 1845. Hood, Jack Hall, xii. To my commands The strongest truckles.
† 3. trans. To cause to truckle. Obs. rare–1.
1687. Good Advice, 9. They … compell men to truckle their tender Consciences to the Grandure and Dominion of their Doctors.
† 4. intr. and trans. To move on truckles or castors; = TRUNDLE v. 3 a, b. Obs.
1656. [see TRUCKLING ppl. a.].
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, III. xiii. Tables with two legs, and chairs without bottoms, were truckled from the middle to one end of the room.
¶ 5. intr. To traffic, deal. = TRUCK v.1 5, 5 b. Const. with. rare.
1806. Fellowes, trans. Milton’s 2nd Defence (1848), 293. Those money-changers … do not merely truckle with doves, but with the Dove itself, with the Spirit of the Most High.
1909. Q. Rev., July, 284. He declined to truckle with any practices tending, as he thought, towards Rome.
