truckle
pronunciation
How to pronounce truckle in British English:
UK ['trʌk(ə)l]
How to pronounce truckle in American English:
US [ 'trʌkl]
-
- Noun:
- a low bed to be slid under a higher bed
-
- Verb:
- yield to out of weakness
- try to gain favor by cringing or flattering
Word Origin
- truckle
- truckle: [15] A truckle is a ‘small wooden wheel or caster’. The word was originally used for a ‘pulley’ (an application which has now largely died out), and it was borrowed from Anglo- Norman trocle. This in turn came via Latin trochlea ‘system of pulleys’ (source of English trochlea [17], an anatomical term for a ‘structure resembling a pulley’) from Greek trokhilíā ‘pulley, system of pulleys, roller, etc’. Trucklebed was a term applied to a sort of low bed on casters that could be pushed under a larger bed when not in use, and the notion of sleeping in the truckle-bed, ‘beneath’ someone in the higher main bed, led in the 17th century to the use of truckle as a verb meaning ‘be subservient’.=> trochlea, truck
- truckle (n.)
- "small wheel or roller," late 14c., from Anglo-French trocle, from Latin trochlea "a small wheel, sheaf of a pulley," from Greek trokhileia "a system of pulleys," from trokhos "wheel," from trekhein "to run," from PIE root *dhregh- "to run" (cognates: Old Irish droch "wheel," Lithuanian pa-drosti "to run fast"). Truckle bed "small bed on wheels that can be stowed under a larger bed" is from mid-15c.
- truckle (v.)
- "give up or submit tamely," 1610s, originally "sleep in a truckle bed" (see truckle (n.)). Meaning "give precedence, assume a submissive position" (1650s, implied in truckling) is perhaps in reference to that type of bed being used by servants and inferiors or simply occupying the lower position. Related: Truckled; truckling.
Example
- 1. Why do you truckle to your mother like that ?
- 2. Don 't truckle under to unreasonable demands .
- 3. Guangzhou reiny hardware co. , ltd. is a specialized truckle supplier integrating professional manufacture and .
- 4. Don t truckle under to demands .
- 5. You needn 't truckle to your aunt like that , you are a grown woman now .