truckle
/ˈtɹʌkəl/
truckle noun: a small wheel; a caster or pulley. Also the ellipsis of truckle bed.
Noun
truckle (plural truckles)
Verb (1)
truckle (third-person singular simple present truckles, present participle truckling, simple past and past participle truckled)
- To roll or move upon truckles, or casters; to trundle.
- To sleep in a truckle bed.
Verb (2)
truckle (third-person singular simple present truckles, present participle truckling, simple past and past participle truckled)
- To act in a submissive manner; to fawn, submit to a superior.
- "Why in the world should you spend your money, worry your family, and turn the house upside down for a parcel of girls who don't care a sixpence for you? I thought you had too much pride and sense to truckle to any mortal woman just because she wears French boots and rides in a coupe," said Jo...1869, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
- There is no doubt […] that truckling to popularity is the worst political vice.1899, William Graham Sumner, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, in War and Other Essays, Yale, published 1911, page 302
Also used as
truckle is also the ellipsis of truckle bed.
Examples of truckle in a sentence
- "I don't truckle, and I hate being patronized as much as you do!" returned Amy indignantly, for the two still jangled when such questions arose.1869, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women:
- Religion it self is forced to truckle to worldly policy.1687, John Norris, A Collection of Miscellanies, consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses and Letters:
Synonyms of truckle
Forms of truckle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | truckles |
| alternative form | troccle |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | truckles |
| present participle | truckling |
| past participle | truckled |
| past | truckled |
Origin of truckle
From Middle English trokel, trocle, trookyl, from Anglo-Norman trocle, from Medieval Latin trochlea (“a block, sheaf containing one or more pulleys”); or from a diminutive of truck (“wheel”), formed with -le, equivalent to truck + -le.
From a back formation of truckle bed (a bed on which a pupil slept, because it was rolled on casters into a lower position under the master's larger bed), from Middle English trookylbed. Compare also trundle bed. Assisted by false association with Middle English *trukelen, truken, trokien, trukien, from Old English trucian (“to fail, diminish”), Low German truggeln (“to flatter, fawn”), see truck.
Words formed from truckle
Phrases with truckle
Words that rhyme with truckle
Questions about truckle
- What does truckle mean?
- Truckle means a small wheel; a caster or pulley.
- How do you use truckle in a sentence?
- "I don't truckle, and I hate being patronized as much as you do!" returned Amy indignantly, for the two still jangled when such questions arose.
- What part of speech is truckle?
- Truckle can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce truckle?
- Truckle is pronounced /ˈtɹʌkəl/.
- What is the plural of truckle?
- The plural of truckle is truckles.
Words near truckle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: truckle (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-truckle.wav.
Cite this entry: “truckle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/truckle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.