truck

Less common meanings

5. 5
   small cartnouncountable

   A small wagon or cart, typically pushed or pulled by hand, used to move and sometimes lift goods, such as luggage in hotels or books in libraries.

   At the station, a porter piled our trunks onto a baggage truck and pushed it along the platform to the train.

   The librarian pushed a truck of returned books down the aisle.

   UsageUsually in compounds: hand truck, baggage truck, book truck.

   Similarcart, trolley, dolly, barrow

   Note

   The hand-moved truck still rolls through hotels and libraries, but the word's animal-drawn sense is obsolete. Thomas Babington Macaulay's History of England describes goods carried about a town "in trucks drawn by dogs." In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1905), men wheel loaded trucks out to the platform where freight cars wait. The word covers small carts and similar vehicles used to move goods.

6. 6
   skateboardnouncountable

   A steering assembly connecting the wheels to a skateboard's deck or a roller skate's mounting plate, typically including an axle, hanger, kingpin, and bushings.

   She swapped out her trucks for a wider pair to improve stability.

   A bent truck can make the board pull to one side.

7. 7
   nounUScountableabbreviation

   Abbreviation of railroad truck or wheel truck.

   Inspectors found a cracked spring in the lead truck of the passenger car.

   Each truck pivots beneath the car body to follow curves in the track.

   Note

   A clipping of railroad truck or wheel truck, a term of American railroading. A car usually rides on two of them, one under each end. Their swiveling lets the axles follow a curve while the long body above stays rigid. For the British name and the goods-wagon confusion, see the British goods wagon. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Truck is an abbreviation of railroad truck or wheel truck in American railway terminology. en.wiktionary.org
   • A car usually has two trucks, one under each end. Articulated cars may share trucks, and heavy-duty cars may have more than two. en.wikipedia.org
   • Trucks swivel relative to the car body, allowing the wheel assemblies to negotiate curves. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
   • British terminology distinguishes the bogie from a railway truck meaning a whole goods vehicle. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   farm producenounUSuncountablebefore a noun

   Garden produce raised for sale at market; vegetables and other groceries.

   Each morning, farmers hauled wagonloads of fresh truck into town to sell.

   The valley's sandy soil produced excellent truck for the city markets.

   UsageMostly in compounds: truck farm, truck garden, truck crops.

   Similarproduce

   Note

   Despite appearances, a truck garden has nothing to do with the vehicle. This truck is the trading word, the barter verb, applied to produce grown for sale. George Washington wrote of "truck patches" in 1792, and Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Moon Maid (1923) raises "garden truck" on lunar terraces.

9. 9
   any contactnoununcountable

   Dealings, contact, or involvement with someone or something, now mostly in the phrase "have no truck with".

   The new manager wanted no truck with the old ways of doing business.

   My grandmother would have no truck with gossip, and she told her neighbors so plainly.

   UsageAlmost always have no truck with someone or something: refuse to deal with them. Positive uses sound odd.

   Similardealings, association, contact, business

   Note

   In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Strange Story of Jonathan Small" (1890), the narrator declares that he "will have no truck with" anything against the fort. The object can be a person, a scheme or an idea.

10. 10
    verbslangUSintransitive

    To travel, move along, or proceed.

    The old van trucked down the highway at a steady fifty-five.

    After lunch we'll truck over to the festival grounds.

    UsageUsually with a direction: truck on down, truck over to the festival. It sounds jaunty and casual.

    Similarroll, cruise, head, travel, mosey

    Note

    American slang with a jive-talk pedigree. Sam Price's "June Teenth Jamboree" (1940), performed by Louis Jordan, has it in a jive-talk command to a listener. Maggie Koerth-Baker, writing in Mental Floss in 2009, has relatives truck over to Ellis Island.

11. 11
    keep goingverbslangCanadaUSintransitive

    To persist or endure; to keep going.

    Through two recessions, the little diner just kept trucking.

    Despite every setback, we truck on and finish what we start.

    UsageMost often keep trucking or trucking along, for carrying on steadily despite difficulties.

    Similarpersevere, persist, continue

    Oppositequit

    Note

    The figurative cousin of the slang "travel" verb: life is the road, and the point is simply to keep moving. In Brittany Terwilliger's The Insatiables (2018), Uncle Larry says of an old acquaintance, "Oh, he's still trucking along."

12. 12
    freight carnounUKcountable

    A railroad car, mainly one built for carrying freight rather than passengers.

    The derailed truck spilled gravel across both lines.

    Each truck in the freight train carried twenty tons of ore.

    UsageOften goods truck when context might not make it clear. North Americans say freight car.

    Similarwagon, car

    Note

    In British railway English, a truck is a goods wagon in a train, the vehicle North Americans call a freight car. The word sets a trap in the other direction too. On an American railroad, truck means the swiveling wheel frame under a car, which British English calls a bogie.

13. 13
    nouncountable

    A platform mounted on wheels or casters, especially one used to move scenery on a stage.

    The whole kitchen set sat on a truck that glided into place during the blackout.

    Crew members locked the truck's casters once the set piece hit its mark.

    Similarwagon, platform

    Note

    Theater keeps the word close to the small wheel it began with: what makes a stage truck is its casters. A whole room can be built on one, rolled on during a blackout and locked once it reaches its mark. That ability to move is what distinguishes a truck from an ordinary fixed platform. Source

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The vehicle-related noun truck originally meant a small wheel. en.wikipedia.org
14. 14
    run over (football)verbslangtransitive

    In American football, to run over or through a defender attempting a tackle.

    On fourth and goal, the fullback trucked two defenders at the line.

    Power backs truck tacklers; shifty backs make them miss.

    UsageTakes the tackler as its object: he trucked the linebacker. Formal writing would say ran over.

    Similarflatten, bulldoze, steamroll, trample

    Note

    Sports slang, and usually a compliment to the runner: a back who trucks a defender goes straight through him rather than around him. It is close kin to the slang "fight" verb.

15. 15
    camera moveverbintransitive

    To move a camera laterally, often traveling parallel to a moving subject being filmed.

    The camera trucks with the detective as he paces the corridor.

    For the parade sequence, they decided to truck alongside the marching band.

    UsageThe camera trucks with or alongside its subject. A camera that only swivels in place pans.

    Similartrack

    Note

    What matters is sideways travel, with the camera itself moving, often keeping pace beside what it films. A shot in which the camera merely swivels in place to follow the action is a pan, not trucking.

16. 16
    barterverbtransitive or intransitive

    To trade or exchange goods, especially by bartering one thing for another.

    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.

    1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy.

    Similartraffic

    Note

    The trading truck came through Anglo-Norman and Old French from Latin trocāre, which probably goes back to Frankish. It heads the word's whole commercial family: goods, payment in kind, social dealings. John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy (1848) calls international trade "an actual trucking of one commodity against another." That phrase captures the verb's core: one thing exchanged for another, with no money between. Source

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The commercial family includes goods, payment in kind, and social dealings. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Stuart Mill wrote Principles of Political Economy, first published in 1848. en.wikipedia.org
    • Mill describes international trade using the exact phrase quoted. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    verbslangtransitive or intransitive

    To get into a fight with someone or otherwise get physical with them.

    Both deputies were big, made of dense flesh and tough experience. . . . I wouldn't have wanted to truck with either one of them.

    1993, Sue Grafton, "J" Is for Judgment

    Similarfight, tangle

    Note

    Rough slang for squaring up to someone. In Sue Grafton's "J" Is for Judgment (1993), the narrator sizes up two big deputies: "I wouldn't have wanted to truck with either one of them." That line sits on the border with the old "have dealings" verb. With a direct object, as in trucking a rival, context decides, since football slang uses the same frame for running over a tackler. Source

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Sue Grafton wrote "J" Is for Judgment, first published in 1993. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel's narrator describes two big deputies and uses the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
    • A direct object does not establish the fighting meaning: truck also transitively means transporting someone or something by truck, and running over or through a football tackler. en.wiktionary.org
18. 18
    pay in goodsnounhistoricaluncountable

    The practice of paying workers in goods, or in tokens redeemable only at a shop owned by the employer.

    Factory owners profited twice from truck, once on labor and again at the company store.

    Reformers campaigned for decades to abolish truck in the mining districts.

    UsageWorkers were paid in truck, never "in a truck".

    Note

    The 19th-century Truck Acts take their name from this practice, which they forbade. The word comes from the barter verb: a wage paid in truck was a wage bartered in goods or in tokens, never handed over as money. Today it belongs to labor history.

19. 19
    relevancenoununcountable

    Relevance or bearing; connection to the matter at hand.

    Many people involved in classical music today, themselves gay, see no reason why their sexuality should have any truck in their music.

    1983, Kenneth Hale-Wehmann, “Coming Out on Record: A Triumph in Gay Music”

    Similarconnection, bearing, relevance, relation

    Note

    Close kin to the "dealings" noun: here the truck is between things, and having none means having no bearing on the matter. It stays in negative or doubtful contexts. In Kenneth Hale-Wehmann's "Coming Out on Record: A Triumph in Gay Music" (1983), gay classical musicians see no reason why their sexuality should "have any truck in their music."

20. 20
    verbintransitive

    To deal or keep company with someone, usually followed by "with"; to associate or engage with another person or group.

    Respectable families would not truck with smugglers, at least not openly.

    He refused to truck with anyone who had taken his brother's side in the long family feud.

    UsageUsually truck with someone, most often in the negative: would not truck with smugglers.

    Similarassociate, consort, deal, mix, mingle

21. 21
    nounobsoleteplural

    Small or humble items; miscellaneous things, often offered for sale or barter.

    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.

    1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    Note

    Obsolete as an everyday word for small goods, though it held on in American storytelling. Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) lists lemonade, gingerbread and watermelons "and such-like truck." Edna Ferber's Dawn O'Hara (1911) has "some such truck." It tends to close a list, after such or such-like, with a shrug. Use it today only for period flavor. Source

    Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Mark Twain wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, first published in 1884. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel lists lemonade, gingerbread and watermelons and includes the exact phrase "and such-like truck." gutenberg.org
    • Edna Ferber wrote Dawn O'Hara, first published in 1911. en.wikipedia.org
    • Dawn O'Hara contains the exact phrase "some such truck." gutenberg.org
22. 22
    messnoununcountable

    Dirt or any other kind of mess.

    “Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?”

    1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

    Similardirt, muck, grime, filth, gunk

23. 23
    noun

    A circular disc of wood at or near the top of a wooden mast, fitted with holes or sheaves for running signal halyards, and sometimes used as a temporary lookout spot.
24. 24
    noun

    The ball fixed at the top of a flagpole.
25. 25
    noun

    A gun carriage's wheel, or any other small wheel or roller.
26. 26
    verbdialectal

    To fail or run short; to become unavailable, diminish, or abate.
27. 27
    verbdialectal

    To give in or give way; to knuckle under or submit.
28. 28
    verbdialectal

    To act deceitfully; to cheat or defraud.
29. 29
    verbdialectalScotlandUK

    To tread or stamp down; to trample something underfoot.