lorry
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: road
transport
Etymology: Uncertain; perhaps from dialectal English lurry (“to lug or pull about, drag”) (compare dialectal lurry-cart), or from the forename Laurie. First attested in early to middle 19th century.
Inflected forms:
form: lorries
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: larry
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: lorrie
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: lorries
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: lorrying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: lorried
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: lorried
pos: verb
tags: past
form: larry
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: lorrie
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck
pos: noun
tags: Africa
India
Ireland
South-Asia
UK
examples: But whenever one of the motor-trucks lumbering by bore a big U.S. on its rear panel Troy pushed his light ambulance ahead and skimmed past, just for the joy of seeing the fresh young heads rising pyramid-wise about the sides of the lorry, hearing the snatches of familiar songs—"Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" and "We won't come back till it's over over here!"—and shouting back in reply to a stentorian "Hi, kid, beat it!", "Bet your life I will, old man!"
The railway is still vital to Jordan's export trade, but in spite of the poor quality of the road, diesel lorries are gradually robbing it of freight traffic, and anyone who can afford to fly does so rather than face the long desert journey by rail.
The most frequent age for starting in the actual occupation of lorry driving is 17 years. Trampers tend to start later, the mode amongst them being 19 years. The mean average age for beginning in lorry driving in the sample is between 21 and 23 years. The mean average number of years spent in lorry driving varies according to the type of driver.
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.
Our journey through the streets of Singapore awoke strange emotions. Very little of the structural damage seemed to have been repaired beyond make-shift patchwork. The streets had a dingy and forlorn look. We arrived outside the British American Tobacco building and had our first experience of the shouting and hustlings that accompanied all Japanese supervision of our movements. We were shouted at to get out of the lorry with our baggage and make out way into the building.
The plantain lorry caught up with them in a blind curve. Jeff caught a glimpse of the driver's face in the mirror as he fought to swing the old truck out around the car. At that moment Jeff heard the sound of the horn of a vehicle coming up the road. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the old lorry beside him; its driver desperately trying to avoid the passenger lorry coming up the scarp.
At the platform in Pathankot, they must have overheard me asking the porter handling my luggage that I wanted to go to the lorry stand for Kashmir. [...] There were no buses then, some primitive contraptions called lorries. A far cry from the spacious and comfortable buses of the present day. They were not only rudimentary and crude, they also travelled very slow.
I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know.
There was also the influx of a third of a million road lorries, sold at giveaway prices after their war roles ceased and used by competing one-man businesses to skim off sundry agricultural freight.
gloss: A truck with an open carriage, sometimes used for transporting construction workers.
pos: noun
tags: Malaysia
Singapore
gloss: A barrow or truck for shifting baggage, as at railway stations.
pos: noun
tags: dated
gloss: A small cart or wagon used on the tramways in mines to carry coal or rubbish.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: The mixing 48-in. belts lie flat and run from the bottom of the mixer bins to two coal mixers which deliver the coal to a reversing 42-in. belt conveyor, taking it to either one of two 36-in. belts, running to the top of two larry bins. Each larry bin is located between two batteries of ovens, [...] Under the larry bins are provided platform scales which enable the larry operator to fill his larry with the exact amount of coal to charge an oven.
[page 4] [T]he larry had been filled to overflowing. When the controller was moved to the third point there was a jarring of the larry, which shook off more of the fine coal and created a dust cloud that enveloped the larry. This dust cloud was ignited by an arc at the wheels. The flame enveloped the larry and the operator, who was standing at the footboard at the controls. He received severe burns on the hands, forearms, face, and neck. [...] [page 5] Coal dust should be kept from tracks on which electric locomotives or slate larries travel.
Having had a precursor in the tracks ground into Roman roads (with a width similar to modern standard gauge, 1435 mm or 4ft 8.5in), Europe only saw the return of track systems in the early modern age, in the shape of mining railways: wooden lorries, operating on wide wooden rails and guided by a track nail between the two rails.
gloss: A large, low, horse-drawn, four-wheeled cart without sides; also, a similar wagon modified for use on railways.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: In order that these very important mails might not be unnecessarily delayed, we procured an express engine, and having, as is customary in such cases, fastened those for Manchester and the North on a larry between the engine and the Post-office, they being too bulky to travel in the latter, we departed at 8.10, [...] On our arrival at the next station, Crewe, we were much alarmed at the intelligence received from the engineer, that one of the bags on the larry, which proved to be the Carlisle, was on fire: [...]
Platelayers, or others, who may have hand lorries or waggons on the line without engines, are strictly charged never to have the same on the line so as to be in the way of a coming train, except for some indispensable purpose, and then special care must be taken to warn any approaching train by proper signal in sufficient time.
For the services of horses and conveyances as may be required at either camp, at a charge per diem to be stated in tender, specifying single horse carts and four horse lorries.
[Garran.] Would it make any difference to you whether the tramway were worked by horses or by cable? [Macintosh.] It would not matter to me, so long as I could get into my premises. We have, perhaps, one of the largest businesses, in heavy material, in Pitt-street, and this traffic is carried on by lorries. If a tramway were laid down in the street, we should not be able to get into our premises.
In Barton's case it was a State Coal Department lorry that hit him and smashed him and the Government would not admit that the State Coal Department lorry was a public work.
The stoning continued heavily from the crowd following in rear and from the fresh crowd, until they reached a spot some 50 yards from the mill. [...] Dawson observed from his position in the Police lorry which was in rear of the mill lorry, that the horses were being hit and giving trouble. He also saw stones falling on the cooly lorry, and Police lorry. The mill lorry being covered in with expanded metal, none of its occupants were hurt.
Ties should never be hauled on a motor car, but they may safely be hauled on a lorrie car properly coupled to a motor car.
gloss: To transport by, or as if by, lorry.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: He lorried away with a whole pile of things, and cheated the bailiffs.
The midday meal at 1230hrs for 'C' and 'D' Companies would be followed by them parading at the camp gates for lorrying to Hazebrouck.
[S]he had bought three jars of baby food, for convenience, and was busy lorrying them into me when I unintentionally spurted a huge mouthful all over her magnificent blouse and skirt.
At a lamplit corner I signalled a cross-bearing transport, and to low salutations of 'Evening, sir,' was hoisted up, bag and all, and swiftly lorried away.
Related words: lowry
lurry
Derived words: articulated lorry
bin lorry
breakdown lorry
fall off the back of a lorry
flatbed lorry
lorry driver
lorryful
lorryless
lorryload
lorryman
skip lorry
steam lorry
tipper lorry
Translations: