truckle
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L329664 on Wikidata ↗verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L333325 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈtɹʌkəl/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English trokel, trocle, trookyl, from Anglo-Norman trocle, from Medieval Latin trochlea (“a block, sheaf containing one or more pulleys”); or from a diminutive of truck (“wheel”), formed with -le, equivalent to truck + -le.
- A small wheel; a caster or pulley.
- A small wheel of cheese.
- Ellipsis of truckle bed.
verb
Etymology: From a back formation of truckle bed (a bed on which a pupil slept, because it was rolled on casters into a lower position under the master's larger bed), from Middle English trookylbed. Compare also trundle bed. Assisted by false association with Middle English *trukelen, truken, trokien, trukien, from Old English trucian (“to fail, diminish”), Low German truggeln (“to flatter, fawn”), see truck.
- To act in a submissive manner; to fawn, submit to a superior.
“"Why in the world should you spend your money, worry your family, and turn the house upside down for a parcel of girls who don't care a sixpence for you? I thought you had too much pride and sense to truckle to any mortal woman just because she wears French boots and rides in a coupe," said Jo, who, being called from the tragic climax of her novel, was not in the best mood for social enterprises. "I don't truckle, and I hate being patronized as much as you do!" returned Amy indignantly, for the two still jangled when such questions arose.”
“There is no doubt […] that truckling to popularity is the worst political vice.”