truckle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to submit tamely or behave obsequiously toward someone, usually in the construction truckle to

   She refused to truckle to officials who expected unquestioning obedience.

2. 2
   noun

   a truckle bed; a low bed on casters that can be stored beneath a higher bed

   At night the servant pulled his truckle out from under the larger bed.

3. 3
   noun

   a small wheel or caster, or a pulley used to move or lift something

   The heavy cabinet rolled across the floor on four wooden truckles.

4. 4
   noun

   in British English, a small barrel-shaped wheel of cheese

   The cheesemaker turned each truckle regularly as it matured.

The noun comes from late Middle English trocle or trokel, through Anglo-French trocle from Latin trochlea, 'pulley,' itself from Greek. Small wheels gave the truckle bed its name. The modern verb grew in the seventeenth century from the obsolete sense 'sleep in a truckle bed': because that lower bed was associated with servants and subordinates, truckle came to mean submit obsequiously.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images