lorry
Syllables: lor·ryUK/ˈlɒɹi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈlɔɹɪj/
lorry noun: a large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck.
Noun
lorry (plural lorries)
- A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck
- 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...1918, Edith Wharton, chapter IX, in The Marne, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 87–88
- 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.1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167
- Synonyms:
- truck
- A truck with an open carriage, sometimes used for transporting construction workers.
- A barrow or truck for shifting baggage, as at railway stations.
- A small cart or wagon used on the tramways in mines to carry coal or rubbish.
- 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...1916 December 7, “Youngstown’s New Coke Oven Plant”, in A. I. Findley, Geo[rge] W. Cope, W. W. Macon, editors, The Iron Age, volume 98, number 23, New York, N.Y.: David Williams Co., →OCLC, page 1271
- [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...1936 July, W. J. Fene, C. W. Owings, “Cases of Explosions in Tipples and Cleaning Plants”, in Explosions of Coal Dust in Tipples and Cleaning Plants and Some Suggestions on Preventing Them (United...
- A large, low, horse-drawn, four-wheeled cart without sides; also, a similar wagon modified for use on railways.
- 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...1838 February 16, Fred[eric]k W. Karstadt, W. Mellush, “Minutes of Evidence”, in Report from the Select Committee on Railroad Communication; […], [London]: Ordered, by the House of Commons [of the...
- 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...1846, “Instructions to Plate-layers”, in Rules and Regulations to be Observed by Engine-men & Others Employed on the East Lancashire Railway, Manchester: Printed by Shaw and M‘Corquodale, →OCLC, page...
- Synonyms:
- dray
Verb
lorry (third-person singular simple present lorries, present participle lorrying, simple past and past participle lorried)
- To transport by, or as if by, lorry.
- He lorried away with a whole pile of things, and cheated the bailiffs.1869 December 18, T. T. W., “Lurry”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., volume IV (4th Series), London: Published at the office, 43...
- The midday meal at 1230hrs for 'C' and 'D' Companies would be followed by them parading at the camp gates for lorrying to Hazebrouck.2002, Norman Brooke, chapter 7, in Half-pint Heroes: The Bantams of World War One, London: Janus Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 62
lorry meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
lorry in Tamil
- சரக்குந்து, சுமைகாவி
lorry in Urdu
- لاری
lorry in Bengali
- লরি, ট্রাক, মালবাহী গাড়ি
lorry in Telugu
- lorry, truck
- లారీ lārī
More languagesFewer languages
- lorry in Malayalam
- ലോറി lōṟi
- lorry in Kannada
- ಲಾರಿ
Examples of lorry in a sentence
- The most frequent age for starting in the actual occupation of lorry driving is 17 years.1968, Peter G. Hollowell, “The Lorry Driver’s Career”, in The Lorry Driver (The International Library of Sociology; 154), London: Routledge...
- We were shouted at to get out of the lorry with our baggage and make out way into the building.1987, Richard Pool, “Prisoner of War”, in Course for Disaster: From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai, London: Leo Cooper, Heinemann, →ISBN...
- The plantain lorry caught up with them in a blind curve.2003, John C. Kennedy, “The Child”, in Last Lorry to Mbordo: Misadventures in Nation Building: A Novel, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford...
- I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care.2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh:
Synonyms of lorry
Forms of lorry
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lorries |
| alternative form (obsolete) | larry |
| alternative form (obsolete) | lorrie |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lorries |
| present participle | lorrying |
| past participle | lorried |
| past | lorried |
Origin of lorry
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.
Words formed from lorry
Phrases with lorry
Words that rhyme with lorry
Questions about lorry
- What does lorry mean?
- Lorry means a large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck.
- What is lorry in Tamil?
- Lorry in Tamil is சரக்குந்து, சுமைகாவி. See Lorry meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use lorry in a sentence?
- The most frequent age for starting in the actual occupation of lorry driving is 17 years.
- What part of speech is lorry?
- Lorry can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce lorry?
- Lorry is pronounced /ˈlɒɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of lorry?
- The plural of lorry is lorries.
Words near lorry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lorry (page history and authors); lorry (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lorry (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); Lorry (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); లారీ (Telugu) (page history and authors); ലോറി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); lorry (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-lorry.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lorry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lorry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.