ppl. a. [f. TRUSS v. + -ED1.]
1. Packed, tied up, etc. (see the vb.); in quot. 1904, with ‘points’ trussed (TRUSS v. 5 b) † Trussed bed, bedstead: cf. trussing bed, etc. (TRUSSING vbl. sb. 3).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 504/1. Trussyd, of fardel,… fardellatus, sarcinatus. Trussyd vp, and bowndyn,… fasciatus.
1530. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 297. A trust bed with a fedder bed.
? 1537. Rutland MSS. (1905), IV. 279. A truste bedsted for my Lord to cary to the Court, vij s.
1552. Huloet, Trussed, suffarcinatus.… Trussed, beaten, layed, or stopped hard together, stipatus.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, V. lxxx. 650. Clusters of many berries … thicke set and trussed togither.
1890. Doyle, White Company, iii. His robe was much too long and loose … so that even with trussed-up skirts he could make little progress.
1904. M. Hewlett, Queen’s Quair, I. vi. The Queen and her maids braved it as saucy young men, trunked, puffed, pointed, trussed and doubleted.
b. fig. Knit together, compactly framed or formed. (Usually const. as pa. pple., often with well or other adv.) ? Obs.
1548. Elyot, Compactilis, that is well compacted and trussed togither, shorte and rounde.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1080/4. A bay Nag,… short necked, well trussed. Ibid. (1693), No. 2916/4. She has lately had Puppies, and is not yet fully Truss’d.
c. Cookery. Of a fowl, etc.: see TRUSS v. 8. Also in Her.: see quot. c. 1828.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, viii. ‘It’s all here,’ said the little man, expanding his breast like a trussed fowl.
c. 1828. Berry, Encycl. Her., I. Gloss., Trussed, Close, or Complicated, are terms unnecessarily introduced into blazon when birds are borne with their wings closed to the body; which is ever implied when the contrary is not expressed.
1900. Elinor Glyn, Visits Elizabeth (1906), 59. He does look like a trussed pigeon.
2. Building, etc. Furnished, supported, or strengthened with a truss or trusses.
1840. H. Spencer, Autobiog. (1904), I. xi. 164. Experiments on trussed beams.
1853. Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges, vii. (ed. 3), 307. On trussed and suspension bridges.
1873. Medley, Autumn Tour U.S. & Canada, ix. 146. Trussed girders are preferred [in bridge-building].
