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truck

noun

  1. freight motor vehicle
L11319 on Wikidata ↗

verb

  1. transport (goods)
L11320 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /tɹʌk/ / /tɹʊk/

noun

Etymology: From Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words, from Latin trocāre, from Frankish *trokan. Related to Etymology 2.

  1. Small, humble items; things, often for sale or barter.

    “There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of watermelons and green corn and such-like truck.”

    “It happened in this way, on a day when I was indulging in a particularly greenery-yallery fit of gloom. Norah rushed into my room. I think I was mooning over some old papers, or letters, or ribbons, or some such truck in the charming, knife-turning way that women have when they are blue.”

  2. The practice of paying workers in kind, or with tokens only exchangeable at a shop owned by the employer [forbidden in the 19th century by the Truck Acts].
  3. Garden produce, groceries (see truck garden).

    “As the home house people (the industrious part of them at least) might want ground for their truck patches, they might, for this purpose, cultivate what would be cleared. But I would have the ground from the cross fence by the Spring, quite round by the Wharf, first grubbed, before the (above mentioned) is attempted.”

    “"Wid dat, Brer Rabbit 'low dat Mr. Man done been had 'im hired fer ter take keer er his truck patch, an' keep out de minks, de mush-rats an' de weasels.”

  4. Social intercourse; dealings, relationships.

    “"How can I decide?" said I. "You have not told me what you want of me. But I tell you now that if it is anything against the safety of the fort I will have no truck with it, so you can drive home your knife and welcome."”

  5. Relevance, bearing.

    “Many people involved in classical music today, themselves gay, see no reason why their sexuality should have any truck in their music.”

    “For this reason, Washington is a wonderful and proven humbler of the Texan conceit: Washington isn't a state, and yet it is metaphorically bigger than Texas. It's where Texas learns that not everyone is in love with Texas. (Where yer from orig'nally has no truck here.)”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words, from Latin trocāre, from Frankish *trokan. Related to Etymology 2.

  1. To trade, exchange; barter.

    “We will begin by supposing the international trade to be in form, what it always is in reality, an actual trucking of one commodity against another.”

  2. To engage in commerce; to barter or deal.

    “But while this businesse was in hand, Arrived one Captaine Argall, and Master Thomas Sedan, sent by Master Cornelius to truck with the Collony [...]”

  3. To have dealings or social relationships with; to engage with.