Truck (?), n. [Cf. F. troc.]
1. Exchange of commodities; barter. Hakluyt.
2. Commodities appropriate for barter, or for small trade; small commodities; esp.,
in the United States, garden
vegetables raised for the market. [Colloq.]
3. The practice of paying wages in goods instead of money; -- called also truck system.
Garden truck,
vegetables raised for market. [Colloq.] [U. S.] -- Truck farming, raising
vegetables for market: market gardening.
[Colloq. U. S.]
Truck , v. i. To exchange commodities; to barter; to trade; to deal.
A master of a ship, who deceived them under color of trucking with them.
Palfrey. Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster.
Burke. To
truck and higgle for a
private good.
Emerson.
Truck , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Trucked (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
trucking.]
[OE. trukken,F. troquer; akin to Sp. & Pg. trocar; of uncertain origin.] To exchange; to give in exchange; to barter; as, to
truck knives for gold dust.
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.
J. S. Mill.
Truck , v. t. To transport on a truck or
trucks.
Truck (?), n. [L. trochus an iron hoop,
Gr. &?; a wheel, fr. &?; to run. See
Trochee, and cf. Truckle, v. i.]
1. A small wheel, as of a vehicle; specifically (Ord.),
a small strong wheel, as of wood or iron, for a gun carriage.
2. A low, wheeled vehicle or barrow for
carrying goods, stone, and other heavy articles.
Goods were
conveyed about the town almost exclusively in trucks drawn by dogs.
Macaulay.
3. (Railroad Mach.)
A swiveling carriage,
consisting of a frame with one or more
pairs of wheels and the necessary boxes, springs,
etc., to carry and guide one
end of a locomotive or a car; -- sometimes called bogie in England. Trucks
usually have four or six wheels.
4. (Naut.) (a)
A small wooden cap at
the summit of a flagstaff or a masthead, having holes in it for reeving halyards through. (b)
A small piece of wood, usually cylindrical or disk-shaped, used for various purposes.
5.
A freight car. [Eng.]
6. A frame on low wheels or rollers; -- used for various purposes, as for a movable support for heavy bodies.
Hear it pronounced