| 释义 |
▪ I. truck, n.1|trʌk|
Also 6–7 trucke, 8–9 Sc. troke, trock.
[a. F. troque, † troq, troc (16th c.), AF. truke (1364), f. troquer: see truck v.1]
1. a. The action or practice of trucking; trading by exchange of commodities; barter. Often in truck (for, † of), by truck for.
[1364Vintner's Co. Charter in Pat. Roll 38 Edw. III, m. 44 (P.R.O.) Si mettent pris sur les vins par Truke ou par eschaunges.] 1553in Hakluyt Voy. (1598) I. 228 No commutation or trucke to be made by any of the petie marchants, without the assent abouesaid. 1567Hawkins Let. to Eliz. 16 Sept. (St. Pap. Dom. XLIV. 7, P.R.O.) To..sell them [negroes] in the West Indyes in trvcke of golde peirels and Esmeraldes. 1625Purchas Pilgrims x. i. 1674 The Moores gave them in trucke for them againe black Moores. 1667in Magens Insurances (1755) II. 437 If..any..shall buy, or get to themselves by Truck, or any other way, such Ship or Goods. 1747Gentl. Mag. Apr. 173/2 Their trade is managed by truck, or bartering one commodity for another. 1861Sat. Rev. 14 Dec. 609 The mind has organs and functions..ranging beyond the things of avoirdupois and truck.
b. transf. and fig.
1741tr. D'Argens' Chinese Lett. xxxix. 300 There's a Place at Moscow for the Truck and Barter of Images, and the Money given is in Proportion to the Size of the Figure. 1784Cowper Task ii. 741 Precedence went in truck, And he was competent whose purse was so. 1796M. Robinson Angelina II. 128 My girl has money, my Lord has a title;—'tis a sort of truck, Sir Clifford.
c. with a and pl. (a) A traffic, trade. (b) An act of trading; a bargain or deal.
1638Diary Citizen Exeter (ed. Brushfield, 1901) 16 For 30 yards Canvas..for wch I set nothing bec[ause] taken in a truck. 1642Tasman Jrnl. in Acc. Sev. Late Voy. i. (1694) 134 They indeavoured to begin a Truck or Merchandize with the yacht. 1678R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 47 This for That, is rather a Truck than a Benefit. 1749Chesterfield Lett. 14 Nov., Utility..established a truck of the little agré mens and pleasures of life. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 417/1 There's Paddy in the truck too; he makes a good thing.
2. The payment of wages otherwise than in money; the system or practice of such payment, the truck system (see 5); in quots. 1879, 1911, goods supplied in lieu of wages.
1743Ir. Act 17 Geo. II, c. 8 §6 In case any person or persons..shall pay any such artificer, workman, servant or labourer..their wages, or other price agreed on, or any part thereof, either in goods or by way of truck, or in any other manner than in ready money. 1766Museum Rust. VI. 420 The workmen alledged, that the clothiers..had..obliged them to take goods in truck, at exorbitant prices. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 12/2 Wages are largely paid in truck, in defiance of the law. 1886Act 49 & 50 Vict. c. 40 §1 The provisions of the Acts relating to truck. 1911Daily News 13 Oct. 3 She pays 2s. 9d. as well as a small amount of ‘truck’, worth a few pence, for getting the whole of her washing done by a washerwoman.
3. a. ‘Traffic’, intercourse, communication, dealings. Now usu. in negative contexts: to have no truck with (a person or thing), etc.
a1625Fletcher Chances ii. i, Hark ye Frederick, What truck betwixt my infant ―? 1790Morison Poems 106 Nor does our blinded master see The trocks between the Clerk and she. 1809J. Skinner Ep. to Capt. R. B. xv, Ye and I have had a trock This forty year. 1866N. & Q. 3rd Ser. IX. 400/1 [In Suffolk] A man who has left off courting a girl, says that he has ‘no more truck along o'har’. 1894Blackw. Mag. June 748 You would think he is a Christian to see the troke there is between that beast and my man. 1899R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street xxvi. 259 Fust time in 'er life..she's ever 'ad any truck with any of them sort. 1929H. S. Walpole Hans Frost iii. iii. 333, I don't want to have any truck with the world at all. 1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling xi. 112 Mebbe your Ma's right. Mebbe you hadn't ought to have no truck with the Forresters. 1948Mind LVII. 17 Others will have no truck with images, and declare that when we remember we are directly apprehending the past occurrence. 1952J. L. Waten Alien Son 97 She would have no truck with so-called midwives who practised spells and incantations. 1960‘J. & E. Bonett’ No Grave for Lady i. 13 Wasn't there a story going about..that Lotte Liselotte was having truck with him? 1975S. Heaney North ii. 58 We tremble near the flames but want no truck With the actual firing.
b. pl. Small matters of business or work; odd jobs, errands, chores. Sc. dial.
1808–18Jamieson s.v. Troke, Troques, or trockies, pl. Small pieces of business that require a good deal of stirring. 1894‘Ian Maclaren’ Bonnie Brier Bush, Lachlan Campbell iii, A'll come for ye as sune as a' get..ma little trokes feenished.
4.
†a. Commodities for barter. Obs.
1555Eden Decades 281 The Tartars..bringe none other wares then truckes or droues of swyfte runnynge horses and clokes made of whyte feltes. 1621in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) 233 The[y] would not geve 2s. a pece nether in money nor truck. 1688Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVII. 792 They must carry all sort of Truck that trade thither, having one Commodity to pass off another. 1770Sir J. Banks Jrnl. (1896) 332 The boat with some truck was sent ashore..in hopes of purchasing some trifling refreshment for the sick.
b. Small articles of a miscellaneous character; sundries; stuff; chiefly in depreciative use: odds and ends; things of little value; trash, rubbish. (Rarely pl.) Also fig.
1785Shirrefs Poems (1790) 250 Scales, compasses, and ither trocks. 1792in Hist. Broughton Place U.P. Ch. (1872) 20 Your Priests wear bands an' pouther'd hair, An' sick vain troke. 1834J. Hall Kentucky I. 221 Several bouncing girls..were clearing away the truck of the evening meal. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxx, Spent all his time in the bush and along the beach, picking up flowers and shells, and such truck. 1871W. Alexander Johnny Gibb i, Is their trock a' in noo, I won'er? 1890L. D'Oyle Notches 67 What cooking utensils and other ‘truck’ we thought we needed. 1897Kipling Capt. Cour. i, I can't smoke the truck the steward sells.
c. U.S. Market-garden produce; hence as a general term for culinary vegetables.
1784Maryland Jrnl. 14 Dec., Advt. (Thornton), A large Room..for his Customers to lodge in, and deposit their Market-truck. 1822J. Flint Lett. Amer. 264 Truck..Culinary vegetables. 1870S. Lanier Nine fr. Eight 2, I was drivin' my two-mule waggin, With a lot of truck for sale. 1885Blackw. Mag. Sept. 330/1 He is laying out the back land in truck or early vegetables. 1902Ibid. Apr. 498/1 ‘Truck’ means briefly such things as can be grown for the Northern markets—cucumbers, cabbages, sweet potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, &c.
5. attrib. and Comb.; in sense 2, as truck act, truck law, truck principle, truck system; in sense 4 c, truck-farm, truck-farmer, truck-farming, truck-garden, truck-gardener, truck-gardening, truck-patch, truck-produce; also truck crop U.S. = sense 4 c; truck-economy: see quot.; truck-house, in North America, a store-house for trading with Indians; also, any storage building (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895); truck-knight, -man: see quots.; truck-master, (a) one who is in charge of a truck-house; (b) an employer who uses the truck system; truck-shop, a shop at which vouchers given instead of wages may be exchanged for goods, a tommy-shop; truck-store = prec.; also, a greengrocery shop (local U.S.).
1895U.S. Dept. Agric. Yearbk. 1894 133 Soils having over 10 or 12 per cent of clay are too heavy and too retentive of moisture for the early *truck crops. 1937Sun (Baltimore) 17 Feb. 7/8 Payments for truck-crop growers have been increased. 1972R. G. Kazmann Mod. Hydrol. (ed. 2) iv. 109 Higher-valued crops such as truck crops are valuable enough to justify far more than this expenditure.
1889R. T. Ely Introd. Pol. Econ. i. vii. 50 *Truck-economy is the term used to denote the period which precedes the use of money.
1866N. & Q. 3rd Ser. IX. 323/1 A truck garden, a *truck farm, is a market-garden or farm. 1969Observer (Colour Suppl.) 19 Jan. 8/3 It was a truck farm, which you call a market-garden, don't you, or a nursery? 1976New Yorker 17 May 34/1 Sold their..duplex and moved to a coöperative truck farm.
1877A. Douai Better Times (1884) 7 The *truck-farmers from Virginia down to Florida. 1979Amer. Poetry Rev. Mar./Apr. 24/1 A few children of Japanese truck farmers and some of us from Youngstown and White Center helped preserve what I snobbishly prefer to think of as peasant vitality.
1885Blackw. Mag. Sept. 331/1 The river-bluffs are admirably suited for *truck-farming. 1891N.Y. Weekly Witness 22 Apr. 2/2 A distinction is made between truck-farming and what is known as market-gardening... Truck-farming is defined as the production of green vegetables on tracts remote from market. 1973Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. lx. 10 Raised and lives in Williston, an unincorporated community..mainly devoted to fishing, tugboating, and truck farming.
1866*Truck garden [see truck farm]. 1868B. J. Lossing Hudson 394 Numerous ‘truck’ gardens, from which the city draws vegetable supplies.
1889L. H. Bailey (title) The Horticulturist's Rule-Book. A Compendium of Useful Information for Fruit-Growers, *Truck-Gardeners, Florists, and Others.
1890Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 12 Apr. 2/4 During their two years' residence they have done all of their own work and *truck-gardening.
1731Massachusetts Stat. 9 Nov., The Indians..have their dependance on this government for supplies..several *truck-houses having been erected..for that purpose. 1753Douglass Brit. Settlem. N. Amer. 228 Some place of Strength, Security, or Retreat for our Indian traders under the name of a Trading or Truck-House.
1625F. Markham Bk. Hon. ii. viii. §2 Dunghill or *Truck-Knights, whose Honors haue no other assent or scale to rise by, but onely their wealth and purchase trucking and bargaining with gold or other merchandise.
1914Daily News 24 Mar. 6 For practical purposes the present *Truck Laws are a dead letter.
1864Webster, *Truckman, 1. One who does business in the way of barter and exchange.
1694Massachusetts Stat. 13 June, That all trade with the said Eastern Indians be managed and carried on at the charge of and with the public stock..by suitable *truck masters. 1767T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. II. iii. 318 The charge of trading houses, truckmasters, garrisons, and a vessel employed in transporting goods. 1906Daily Chron. 22 June 5/2 The wool was given out, and the payment in tea or groceries for the manufactured article was made from the shop of a truck master.
1829T. Flint G. Mason iii. 33 A garden, or, as the people call it, a *truck patch, was also prepared.
1837Syd. Smith 2nd Let. Archd. Singleton Wks. 1859 II. 285/1 Recommending the *truck principle to the Bishops, and offering to pay them in hassocks, cassocks, aprons, shovel-hats [etc.].
1890L. D'Oyle Notches 145 The proximity of the camp would ensure them a ready market for all ‘*truck’ produce.
1845Disraeli Sybil iii. i, The Butty generally keeps a Tommy or *Truck shop and pays the wages of his labourers in goods.
1886Appleton's Ann. Cycl. 84/1 In Liége..employers compelled the labourers to purchase supplies from their *Truck stores, at prices from 50 to 90 per cent. above..retail rates.
1830Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 352 In the iron country..the *truck or tommy system generally prevails. 1869Adam Smith's W.N. i. x. ii. I. 150 note, The truck system..is now uniformly illegal.
1740Douglass Disc. Curr. Brit. Plant. Amer. 4 All Commerce naturally is a *Truck Trade exchanging Commodities which we can spare (or their Value) for Goods we are in want of. 1794Gaz. U.S.A. (Philad.) 6 Jan. (Thornton), It is a truck trade that is proposed.
▪ II. truck, n.2|trʌk|
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.
1611Florio, Rigolo, a little wheele vsed vnder sleds. Gunners call it a trucke. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 65 If for Sea she [gun carriage] haue Trucks, which are round intier peeces of wood like wheeles. 1727A. 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. 1860All 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. 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.
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 13 The maine top gallant sayle yeard, the trucke or flagge staffe. 1627― Seaman's Gram. iv. 18 The Trucke is a square peece of wood at the top wherein you put the Flag-staffe. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 414 At our Main-top-mast head, on the very top of the truck of the Spindle. 1774Westm. Mag. II. 429 What surprise he declar'd at the Boy on the truck! 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast viii. 18 We painted her, both inside and out, from the truck to the water's edge. 1899F. 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.
a1625Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301) s.v., Those little round thinges of Wood which belong to the Parrells, are called Trucks. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 20 Parrels are little round Balls called Trucks, and little peeces of wood called ribs, and ropes. c1635N. Boteler Dial. Sea Services iv. (1685) 236 When the Main⁓capstan 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. 1688R. 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. 1711W. 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; = logie 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.
1774Hull Dock Act 46 Any truck or cart, sledge waggon, dray. 1815Chron. in Ann. Reg. 47/2 A baker's boy was wheeling his truck of bread along the road. 1838N. Wood Railroads 209 Truck for the conveyance of general merchandise. 1843Proc. Inst. Civil Eng. 99 A ‘bogie’ engine, having a four-wheeled truck to support one end of the boiler. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. ix, There were more trucks near Todgers's than you would suppose a whole city could ever need. 1866R. M. Ballantyne Shift. Winds xxiv. (1881) 274 Porters are hurrying to and fro with luggage on trucks. 1888F. Hume Mme. Midas i. v, Another truck was waiting to take it to the main shaft, from whence it went up to the puddlers.
g. A motor vehicle for carrying goods, troops, etc., by road. Cf. lorry n. 1 b. orig. U.S.
1916, etc. [see motor-truck s.v. motor n. 5 a]. 1930[see lorry n. 1 b]. 1932G. Greene Stamboul Train i. i. 3 The passengers cross the quay..round..abandoned trucks. 1950Times 27 Apr. 6/7 Many soldiers in the last war will remember that ‘gas’ might or might not be petrol and a ‘truck’ might or might not be a lorry. So it is to-day with ‘gearbox’, ‘transmission’, and many others. 1961L. van der Post Heart of Hunter vii. 112 One of the foremost ranchers near Gemsbok Pan was in the Union and coming back by truck across the desert. 1976Economist 16 Oct. 92/1 Of European sales nearly 200,000 were glorified cars, about 400,000 medium-sized vans (up to 3.5 tonnes) and some 240,000 trucks (over 3.5 tonnes). 1984Times 8 Feb. (Energy Suppl.) p. iv./2 This step by the manufacturers to put electric vans and trucks into serious production..has vindicated the enthusiasm of the..Electric Vehicles Association. 1984N.Z. Truth 23 May 33/3 The new ERF M16, ERF's bid for sales in the mid⁓size truck market, is on its way to becoming a big seller in Europe.
h. An axle unit of a skateboard to which the wheels are attached.
1976A. Cassorla Skateboarder's Bible 12 The average board came with trucks featuring one cushion rather than two. 1977Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring–Summer 509/1 Heavy duty double-action die-cast trucks. 1978Globe & Mail (Toronto) 15 Aug. 5/2 The wheels are lined with fibrous or plastic material to reduce noise, and steerable axles called trucks are supposed to eliminate squealing on curves and costly wear on rails.
4. U.S. A popular dance (see quots.). Cf. truck v.2 5, trucking vbl. n.2 2.
1935Sun (Baltimore) 15 Nov. 14/6 The truck, or truckin', that jerky yet rhythmic dance which combines a bend of the body, a tightening of the hand muscles and a slight strut with the legs, hit the theaters, sidewalks, gin taverns and dance floors of Harlem last summer. 1937N.Y. Amsterdam News 4 Sept. 12/2 Add a bit of the Shag, the new dance sensation that has pushed the ‘Truck’ out of the limelight, throw in a bit of the Suzi-Q for a spice and then top it all off with the ‘Truck’.
5. attrib. and Comb., as truck-barrow, truck-boy, truck construction, truck-driver, truck-horse, truck-load, truck-man, truck-porter, truck-proprietor, truck-wagon, truck-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-end slang rare—1, the buttocks; truck frame U.S., the frame of a bogie; 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; trucklot N. Amer., a quantity of goods sufficient to fill a truck and sold at a lower rate than a smaller quantity; truck mixer (see quot. 1954); truck stop chiefly U.S., an establishment which provides refreshments for truck-drivers and fuel and servicing for their trucks; truck-windlass, a windlass mounted on a truck (Funk's Stand. Dict. 1895).
1849Craig, *Truck-barrow, in Ropemaking, a sort of barrow with three wheels, used to take hauls of yarn from the yarn-house.
1900Engineering 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.
1901Daily News 16 Jan. 6/5 Colossal expenditure on track improvements, *truck construction, and increased power of locomotives.
1907Ibid. 17 Apr. 4 All sorts and conditions of people,..business men, *truck drivers, workgirls, policemen, Army men, everybody. 1931E. Wilson Axel's Castle viii. 278 At Marseilles, he manages to live by unloading cargo and helping truck-drivers. 1973‘R. MacLeod’ Burial in Portugal iii. 71 A truck driver leaned out of his cab and shouted a greeting.
1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers iii. 53 But six shillin' wearin' his *truck-end out on a stool's better than ten shillin' i' th' pit.
1850Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) I. 164, I claim the shapes and combinations of the *truck frame pieces. 1942W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 145 He nudged the log to the edge of the truckframe.
1883Daily News 31 Aug. 6/6 One of the old class of corvettes with *truck guns.
1839Spirit of Times 27 July 246/1 Indeed many of their *truck horses are equal to those used on the road. 1894S. Fiske Holiday Stories (1900) 21 What does it cost to keep a truck-horse?
1877Knight 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.
1895Daily News 8 Apr. 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.
1862Sat. Rev. 18 Feb. 157 The great London firms have sent off many railway *truck-loads of their publications. 1943Sun (Baltimore) 15 July 12/3 The regulation covers sales of berries at country shipping points, effective July 13, and carlot and *trucklot sales at any receiving point. 1970Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 16/3 (Advt.), Attention! all Trucklot Buyers!!.. Prices in this section apply on normal mixed truckloads.
1787M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 306 By them..licensing retailers, taverns, carters, *truckmen,..are regulated. 1854Emerson 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? 1901Scotsman 11 Apr. 8/1 The truckman..delivered the gold from the Assay office to the steamship.
1954Gloss. Highway Engin. Terms (B.S.I.) 49 *Truck mixer, a concrete mixer mounted on a self-propelled chassis, capable of mixing materials during transit from a batching plant to the point of placing. 1976Milton Keynes Express 9 July 16/1 (Advt.), Experienced class II H.G.V. driver required to operate a truck mixer in the Milton Keynes area.
1961Amer. Speech XXXVI. 271 Somewhere on your run you will spend some time at a *truck stop..while the hasher serves your diesel or Joe or Java. 1973P. Berton Drifting Home vi. 91 Now it is a hodge-podge: tavern, gas station, motel, snack bar, grocery store. Carmacks has become a truck stop.
1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 351/2 At Baddeck our camping outfit was packed upon a *truck-wagon.
1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 423 The motion given to the *truck-wheels of the spinning-machine.
1909Daily Chron. 25 Sept. 7/6 Lad wanted for *truck work.
Hence ˈtruckful, as much as fills or loads a truck.
1836Dickens Pickw. xxi. 213 He had moved in all his furniture—it wasn't quite a truck-full. 1893Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 12 Oct., Cigars are pouring in by the truckful and the cigarettes are innumerable. 1900Daily News 1 Aug. 6/6 The truckful of sick and wounded left at Bloemfontein Station.
▪ III. truck, v.1|trʌk|
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 n. 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.).
a1225Ancr. R. 408 Vndeore he makeð God, & to unwurð mid alle, þet for eni worldliche luue his luue trukie. c1230Hali Meid. 5 And trukie for a mon of lam þe heuenliche lauerd. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. Babylon 485 Trade..with hardy luck Doth words for words barter, exchange and truck. 1614B. Jonson Bart. Fair ii. vi, S'blood, how braue is he? in a garded coate? you were best trucke with him. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 105 To truck the Latine for any other vulgar Language, is but an ill barter. 1698Farquhar Love & Bottle i. i, What, slighted! despised! my honourable love trucked for a whore! 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 23 Let him truck Jackets with any of his Barge-men. 1819Keats K. Stephen i. iii. 11, I would not truck this brilliant day To rule in Pylos with a Nestor's beard. 1827Barrington 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.
c1440Promp. Parv 503/2 Trukkon, roryn, or chaungyn, cambio, campso. 1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 329 They..brought with them many curious thinges..to truck for other thinges. 1650Fuller Pisgah ii. ii. 80 They kept swine to truck and barter with other nations. c1660D. North in R. North Lives (1826) II. 306 The seamen trucked some tobacco with them for their capeaks, or furred caps. 1774Phil. Trans. LXIV. 380 For blanketing, fire-arms..and ammunition, they truck the greatest part of their furs. 1817–18Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 40 My own stock being gone, I have trucked turnips for apples. 1884St. 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.c1645Howell Lett. (1650) III. 3 Since we are both agred to truck Intelligence [etc.]. a1774Fergusson Butterfly in Street 41 How cou'd you troke the mavis' note For ‘penny pies all piping hot’? 1896J. Lumsden Poems 171 A' the news the country offered Crinch for crinch they trockit thrang.
†b. To acquire by barter. Obs. rare.
1553S. Cabot Ordinances in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 261 All wares and commodities trucked, bought or giuen to the companie. 1600Hakluyt Voy. III. 326 Fiue or sixe pounds weight of siluer which he had trucked and traffiqued with Indians. 1631J. Rous Diary (Camden) 67 Fish, either bought or trucked at Norwich.
c. To dispose of to a person by barter. ? Obs.
1686Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 187 Nicho. Skull hath sould and trucked to and with y⊇ Indians severall quantities of Liquors. 1755T. 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. 1819J. H. 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.
1715Bentley 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.
1681R. 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.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cccxxviii, The Painted Apple, for his part In Paradice; France truck't, for a faire face. 1706De Foe Jure Div. v. 9 Liberty's too often truck'd for Gold. 1726W. Reeves Serm. (1729) 160 He will not..truck his religion for preferment. 1781Cowper Expost. 374 Having trucked thy soul, brought home the fee. 1829J. 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.
1631Sanderson Serm., Ad Aulam i. (1660) II. 6 For the obtaining whereof they truck away their precious souls. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 119 His men..(for some Commodities useful to themselves) had truckt away the greatest part of his Bisket. 1796Burke 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. n.1]. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. 227 Neither would they take money for their fruite but would trucke for olde shirtes or pieces of olde linnen breeches. 1623Lisle 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. 1697W. Dampier Voy. (1720) I. 41 Spaniards who lived there to truck with the Indians for gold. 1797S. James Narr. Voy. 162 He would either sell them to him, or truck with him for any thing. 1854R. 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.
1615Jackson 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. 1640in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 122 He hath most unworthily trucked and chaffered in the meanest of them. a1656Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 500 [She] trucked with the army..and brought it over to her husband as her dowry. 1664in 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. a1774Fergusson Election Poems (1845) 43 Ye louns! that troke in doctors' stuff. 1824Scott St. Ronan's xxxi, She must go on troking wi' the old carrier, as if there was no post-house in the neighbourhood. 1904Daily 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.
1622F. 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. 1624Massinger Parl. Love ii. i, Truck with old ladies That nature hath given o'er. a1658Cleveland Mixt Assembly 86 If they two truck together, 'twill not be A Child-birth, but a Goal-delivery. a1704T. Brown Sat. Quack 95 Wrinkled witches, when they truck with hell. 1719Hamilton Ep. to Ramsay 24 July v, To troke with thee I'd best forbear 't. 1787W. Taylor Poems 132 Me..wuss me hae never Enbowr see, Nor wi' sic Lady trockit. 1815Scott Guy M. xi, He held ower muckle troking and communing wi' that Meg Merrilies, wha was the maist notorious witch in a' Galloway. 1893–4Northumbld. Gloss., Troke, to truck, to negotiate with, to be on familiar terms.
6. intr. To walk about on petty business; to potter. Sc.
1864Gilfillan Jrnl. in Watson Life (1892) 384, I troked about Edinburgh for a day or two. 1871W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xxxix, Tak' a girse parkie or twa, an' trock aboot amo' nowte beasts. 1892Stevenson & L. Osbourne Wrecker vi, Going troking across a continent on a wild goose chase. 1894Traikings 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.
1871A. 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. 1879Escott England I. 265, 25,000 hands are employed, and, speaking roughly, about 14,000 are trucked.
¶8. intr. = truckle v. 2 a. Obs. rare.
1665Surv. Aff. Netherl. 174 Their Towns..ready to submit to any new Masters, rather than Truck under Amsterdam. 1674Staveley Rom. Horseleach Ep. Ded., Amsterdam supplanted Antwerp,—Flanders trucked under Holland.
Hence ˈtrucking ppl. a., that trucks or barters.
1776Adam Smith W.N. i. ii. (1869) I. 16 This same trucking disposition..originally gives occasion to the division of labour. 1871A. S. Harvey in Gd. Words 611 In the hosiery trade the trucking middlemen undersell the cash-paying masters.
▪ IV. truck, v.2
[f. truck n.2]
1. trans. To put on or into a truck; to convey by means of a truck or trucks. Now usu. with reference to truck n.2 3 g.
1809[see trucking below]. 1864Pall Mall G. 4 Sept. 10/2 At stations where cattle are trucked, special accommodation for trucking them quietly and carefully,..ought to be provided. 1865Ibid. 29 Sept. 7/2 A farmer in Perthshire, having lost one or two animals from the plague, immediately trucked off the rest to London for the Monday morning's market. 1884West Morn. News 6 Aug. 1/2 Lots can be trucked..to any part of the West of England. 1935Motion Picture Nov. 80/3 The heavy electrical equipment was trucked in. 1943Sun (Baltimore) 28 Apr. 8/3 The fighters are trucked in crated from cargo ships. 1954[see fat n.2 1 b]. 1969A. Lurie Real People 108 He has trucked all his equipment..up here at considerable expense. 1982L. Kallen C. B. Greenfield iv. 47 The produce, trucked in daily from their own upstate farm, was fresh.
2. intr. To drive or take charge of a truck, to act as a truck-driver. U.S. colloq.
1907Black Cat June 3, I been truckin' fer you, or rather fer your father and uncle, eighteen years, and that's the first time any one's ever accused me of droppin' anything. 1976M. Machlin Pipeline xi. 135 If he stayed with the private contractors who were trucking for Denali, it was improbable he would be recognized.
3. a. U.S. slang. Of a vehicle: to proceed. Hence of a person: to go (by truck or otherwise); to move or stroll.
1925C. R. Cooper Lions 'n' Tigers v. 109 One by one the big wagons were trucking toward the first smoking torch at a corner of the grounds. 1938Better English Nov. 51 Truck, truck on down, to go somewhere. 1941Steinbeck & Ricketts Sea of Cortez xxiv. 237 We said good-by to Tiburoń and trucked on down toward Guaymas. 1970T. Wolfe Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing Flak Catchers 131 They would truck around in the pimp style, too. 1979United States 1980/81 (Penguin Travel Guides) 148 You'll still find plenty of people trucking through the streets in flannel shirts, blue jeans, cowboy hats, and boots.
b. Slang phr. to keep on trucking, to persevere: a phrase of encouragement.
1972Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 28 Oct. 12 One poster..shows the famous R. Crumb cartoon characters and bears the caption: ‘Let's Keep on Truckin'.’ 1976Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 6 Nov. (Advt. Suppl.) 5/4 ‘To keep in business he's just got to keep on truckin'.’ For Karl, and his kind, that can mean upwards of 200,000 miles a year. 1977New Yorker 27 June 79/1 Feels like I frosted the ends of my toes a bit, but they're far from my heart, so I'll keep on truckin.
4. Cinematogr. = track v.1 3 e.
1929[see dolly n.1 4 h]. 1942Amer. Cinematographer June 283/2 The camera would start at a long shot, and truck rapidly down toward the background. 1948A. Huxley Ape & Essence (1949) 151 Dr. Poole and Loola enter the shot, and the Camera trucks with them as they come striding down the slope. 1961G. Millerson Technique Television Production iii. 25 (caption) Two methods of trucking sideways are shown.
5. To dance the truck. U.S. slang.
1937Amer. Speech XII. 183/1 Only negroes can really truck. 1966M. & J. Stearns in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 614/2 Sweetie May trucks provocatively onstage. 1972W. M. Estes Streetful of People vii. 238 Toward the end of the number, the girls turned rosy red and started truckin'.
Hence trucked ppl. a.; trucked-in adj., brought by truck.
1940Sun (Baltimore) 16 Apr. 15/5 Offerings during forenoon rounds in the sheep pens consisted of a few lots of trucked-in native spring lambs. 1966T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 iii. 56 The trucked-in white sand. 1977Time 7 Mar. 54/3 Lack of green grazing land and hay is also forcing cattlemen either to sell off their thin animals at low prices or fatten them on expensive trucked-in feed.
▪ V. † truck, v.3 Obs. rare—1.
[Cf. It. truccare ‘to trudge, to skud, or pack away’ (Florio, 1598).]
intr. To trudge, tramp.
1631R. Brathwait Whimzies, Wine-soaker 102 If he..fall into a gravell-pit hee taxeth the citie for her governement, for leaving her cellar doores so wide open at that time a night. Yet on hee trucks, if he can mount the pit.
▪ VI. truck
var. trug2 Obs.; dial. var. troke v. |