trundle

name

1. A locality in the Parkes council area, central New South Wales, Australia.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English trondlin, trondelen, a variation of Middle English trendlen, from Old English trendlian. More at trendle, trindle.

1. Ellipsis of trundle bed (“a low bed on wheels that can be rolled underneath another bed”).

   “"When he comes back will be turned out." "But I always knew it was a one-year job." "Oh you don't mind being like a rented article from Hertz's, like a trundle bed or a baby's potty?"”

2. A low wagon or cart on small wheels, used to transport things.

   “[…] you may […] place the whole weighty Clod upon a Trundle to be convey’d, and Replanted where you please,”

   “[…] in case the Tree be very great […] you must then have a Gin or Crane, such a one as they have to Load Timber with; and by that you may weigh it out of its place, and place the whole upon a Trundle or Sledge, to convey it to the place you desire; and by the afore-said Engine you may take it off from the Trundle, and set it in its hole at your pleasure.”

3. A small wheel or roller.
4. A motion as of something moving upon little wheels or rollers; a rolling motion.

   “There was something expert and even vicious in the flick of Paul’s arm and the hard momentary trundle of the [cricket] ball along the curving rails.”

5. The sound made by an object being moved on wheels.

   “[…] an old man who could always be located from far away by the sound of a scythe or the trundle of a wheelbarrow.”

   “He could hear the trundle of cart wheels.”

6. A lantern wheel, or one of its bars.

   “The Cog-wheels in most Wind-Mills are (in the diameter) 8. foot or under […] the trundle is at the least two foot, which is 4. to one.”

7. A spool or skein of golden thread (chiefly in the arms of the Embroiderers Company, now the Company of Broderers).

   “between as many Trundles, Or […]”

   “Gules, two broaches in saltire argent, between as many trundles or, on a chief of the second a lion passant gules - EMBROIDERERS' COMPANY at Bristol and Chester.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English trondlin, trondelen, a variation of Middle English trendlen, from Old English trendlian. More at trendle, trindle.

1. To wheel or roll (an object on wheels), especially by pushing, often slowly or heavily.

   “Every morning, the vendors trundle their carts out into the market.”

   “to trundle a bed or a gun carriage”

2. To transport (something or someone) using an object on wheels, especially one that is pushed.

   “[…] they are attended like the Lords and Princes of the earth, with mighty retinues, and are carryed in coaches with foure or six horses a peece in them, when a wheele barrow such as they trundle white wine vineger about the towne were a great deale fitter for them […]”

   “1761, George Colman, The Genius, No. 5, 6 August, 1761, in Prose on Several Occasions, London: T. Cadel, 1787, pp. 57-58, The reading female hires her novels from some country circulating library, which consists of about an hundred volumes, or, is trundled from the next market town in a wheelbarrow;”

3. To move heavily (on wheels).

   “[…] he can glibly run over Non-sense, as an empty Cart trundles down a Hill.”

   “Until the main road from Hatfield to Hertford was diverted a few years ago, heavy lorries trundling through the village sometimes knocked chunks off corner buildings, but now the village has regained much of its former tranquillity.”

4. To move (something or someone), often heavily or clumsily.

   “I’ll clap a pair of horses to your chaise that shall trundle you off in a twinkling,”

   “1928, W. B. Yeats, “Meditations in Time of Civil War,” 6. “The Stare’s Nest by My Window,” in The Tower, London: Macmillan, p. 27, Last night they trundled down the road That dead young soldier in his blood:”

5. To move, often heavily or clumsily.

   “Betty. They are gone Sir, in great Anger. / Pet[ulant]. Enough, let 'em trundle. Anger helps Complexion, ſaves Paint.”

   “... the proprietor trundled away to fetch a second beer ...”

6. To cause (something) to roll or revolve; to roll (something) along.

   “to trundle a hoop or a ball”

   “1565, Andrew Boorde, Merie Tales of the Made Men of Gotam, London: Thomas Colwell, Tale 3, He layde downe hys poake, and tooke the cheeses, and dyd trundle them downe the hyll one after another:”

7. To roll or revolve; to roll along.

   “At Chrystes death, whan the Apostles all Theyr mayster dyd leaue, throughe mutabylytie Men were founde lyght, and trundlynge as a ball In them was no fayth, but infydelytye”

   “Water is apt to move, being round like Balls, No points to fixe, doth trundle as it falls.”