truck
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹʌk/
ipa: /tɹʊk/
rhymes: -ʌk
Forms: form: trucks
Etymology: From Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words, from Latin trocāre, from Frankish *trokan. Related to Etymology 2.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1884, Mark Twain, chapter 20, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
text: 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.
ref: 1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 5, in Dawn O'Hara, the Girl who Laughed:
glosses: Small, humble items; things, often for sale or barter.
glosses: 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].
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1792 November 4, George Washington, (Please provide the book title or journal name), quoted in The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: Volume 32, 1745-1799.:
text: "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.
ref: 1903, Joel Chandler Harris, chapter 11, in "Brother Rabbit's Cradle", New Stories of the Old Plantation:
text: I obtained my first view of a lunar city. It was built around a crater, and the buildings were terraced back from the rim, the terraces being generally devoted to the raising of garden truck and the principal fruit-bearing trees and shrubs.
ref: 1923, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Moon Maid:
glosses: Garden produce, groceries (see truck garden).
examples: text: "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."
ref: 1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Strange Story of Jonathan Small”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 240:
glosses: Social intercourse; dealings, relationships.
raw_tags: with negative
examples: text: Many people involved in classical music today, themselves gay, see no reason why their sexuality should have any truck in their music.
ref: 1983 December 17, Kenneth Hale-Wehmann, “Coming Out on Record: A Triumph in Gay Music”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 22, page 15:
text: 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.)
ref: 2001 January 19, Hank Stuever, “A Fantasy as Big As All Texas”, in Washington Post:
glosses: Relevance, bearing.
raw_tags: with negative
Derived terms: have no truck with
truck garden