trunk
UK/tɹʌŋk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/tɹʊŋk/
trunk noun: the usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches. Also the ellipsis of swimming trunks.
Noun
trunk (plural trunks)
- The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
- Synonyms:
- bole, tree trunk, stock
- The torso; especially, the human torso.
- The conspicuously extended, mobile, nose-like organ of an animal such as a sengi, a tapir or especially an elephant. The trunks of various kinds of animals might be adapted to probing and sniffing, as in the sengis, or be partly prehensile, as in the tapir, or be a versatile prehensile organ for manipulation, feeding, drinking and fighting as in the elephant.
- Synonyms:
- proboscis
- A large suitcase, chest, or similar receptacle for carrying or storing personal possessions, usually with a hinged, often domed lid, and handles at each end, so that generally it takes two persons to carry a full trunk.
- There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, page 01
- A box or chest usually covered with leather, metal, or cloth, or sometimes made of leather, hide, or metal, for holding or transporting clothes or other goods.
- To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunksc. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon-style car.
- I'm a stunt; ride in the car with some bump in the trunk.2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring...
- A storage compartment fitted behind the seat of a motorcycle.
- A major circuit between telephone switchboards or other switching equipment.
- A chute or conduit, or a watertight shaft connecting two or more decks.
- A long, large box, pipe, or conductor, made of plank or metal plates, for various uses, as for conveying air to a mine or to a furnace, water to a mill, grain to an elevator, etc.
- A long tube through which pellets of clay, peas, etc., are driven by the force of the breath. A peashooter
- He shot Sugar Plums at them out of a Trunk.1655, James Howell, “To the Lord Viscount Col. from Madrid”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey...
- A flume or sluice in which ores are separated from the slimes in which they are contained.
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- In software projects under source control: the most current source tree, from which the latest unstable builds (so-called "trunk builds") are compiled.
- The main line or body of anything.
- the trunk of a vein or of an artery, as distinct from the branches
- A large pipe forming the piston rod of a steam engine, of sufficient diameter to allow one end of the connecting rod to be attached to the crank, and the other end to pass within the pipe directly to the piston, thus making the engine more compact.
Verb
trunk (third-person singular simple present trunks, present participle trunking, simple past and past participle trunked)
- To lop off; to curtail; to truncate.
- Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stocke / Forth gushed, like fresh water streame from riuen rocke.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10
- To extract (ores) from the slimes in which they are contained, by means of a trunk.
- To provide simultaneous network access to multiple clients by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies.
Proper noun capitalized: Trunk
Trunk (plural Trunks)
- A surname from German.
Also used as
trunk is also the ellipsis of swimming trunks.
trunk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
trunk in Hindi
- tree trunk
- तना tanā, स्कन्ध skandh
- extended nasal organ of an elephant
- सूंड sūṇḍ
- large suitcase or chest
- सन्दूक़ sandūq, पेटी peṭī
- luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car
- ट्रंक ṭraṅk
trunk in Tamil
- tree trunk
- தண்டு taṇṭu
- extended nasal organ of an elephant
- தும்பிக்கை tumpikkai
- large suitcase or chest
- பெட்டி peṭṭi
trunk in Marathi
- ट्रंक
trunk in Urdu
- tree trunk
- تَنَہ tana
- extended nasal organ of an elephant
- سُونْڈ sūnḍ, خُرْطُوم xurtūm
- large suitcase or chest
- صَنْدُوق sandūq
- luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car
- ٹْرَن٘ک ṭraṅk
More languagesFewer languages
- trunk in Bengali
- সিন্দুক śinduk
- trunk in Telugu
- కాండము kāṇḍamu, తొండము toṇḍamu
- trunk in Malayalam
- തുമ്പിക്കൈ tumpikkai
- trunk in Kannada
- ಟ್ರಂಕ್
- trunk in Punjabi
- ਸੰਦੂਕ sandūk
- trunk in Gujarati
- થડ thaḍ, સુંઢ suṇḍh, પટારો paṭāro, ડેકી ḍekī
- trunk in Odia
- ଟ୍ରଙ୍କ, ଟ୍ରାଙ୍କ, ଟ୍ରଙ୍କ୍
- trunk in Sanskrit
- स्कन्ध skandha
- trunk in Assamese
- শুঁৰ xũr
- trunk in Nepali
- ट्रङ्क, ट्रंक, ट्राङ्क
- trunk in Pashto
- صندوق sanduq
- trunk in Tagalog
- puno, bulalay, baul
- trunk in Arabic
- جِذْع jiḏʕ, خُرْطُوم ḵurṭūm, صَنْدُوق ṣandūq, صُنْدُوق ṣundūq
- trunk in Malay
- belalai, but
- trunk in Indonesian
- batang, belalai, bagasi
- trunk in Thai
- ต้น dtôn, ลำ lam, ลำต้น lam-dtôn, งวง nguuang
- trunk in Vietnamese
- thân cây, vòi voi, vòi, hành lý
- trunk in Myanmar
- ပင်စည် pangcany, နှာမောင်း hnamaung:
Examples of trunk in a sentence
- The banana tree is a tall perennial herb: its trunk is not woody.
- The trunk is unbranched, often much shortened, and bears a crown of feathery or pinnate fronds.
- The subwoofer in the trunk was so loud, it vibrated the tag like an aluminum can.
Synonyms of trunk
Forms of trunk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | trunks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | trunks |
| present participle | trunking |
| past participle | trunked |
| past | trunked |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Trunks |
Origin of trunk
From Middle English tronke, trunke, from Old French tronc (“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus (“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus (“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. Doublet of truncus and tronk.
Borrowed from German Trunk, also a Jewish Ashkenazi surname.
Words formed from trunk
- betrunk
- brachiocephalic trunk
- celiac trunk
- costocervical trunk
- detrunk
- digit trunk
- elephant's trunk
- elephant trunk
- floppy trunk syndrome
- hand trunk
- intrunk
- jugular trunk
- junk in one's trunk
- junk in the trunk
- nerve trunk
- nontrunk
- pseudotrunk
- pulmonary trunk
- Saratoga trunk
- steamer trunk
- subscriber trunk dialling
- supertrunk
- sympathetic trunk
- the apple does not fall far from the trunk
- thyrocervical trunk
- tree trunk
- trunkal
- trunkback
- trunk breeches
- trunk briefs
- trunk call
- Trunk Cay
- trunker
- trunkfish
- trunkful
- trunkhose
- trunkless
- trunklid
- trunk-like
- trunklike
- trunk line
- trunkline
- trunkload
- trunk-maker
- trunkmaker
- trunkmaking
- trunk novel
- trunk or treat
- trunk piston
- trunk road
- trunk show
- trunk sleeve
- trunky
- untrunk
Phrases with trunk
Words that rhyme with trunk
Questions about trunk
- What does trunk mean?
- Trunk means the usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
- What is trunk in Hindi?
- Trunk in Hindi is तना (tanā), स्कन्ध (skandh), सूंड (sūṇḍ). See Trunk meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is trunk?
- Trunk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce trunk?
- Trunk is pronounced /tɹʌŋk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of trunk?
- The plural of trunk is trunks.
Words near trunk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trunk (page history and authors); Trunk (page history and authors); trunk (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); trunk (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); trunk (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); trunk (Nepali, 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-trunk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “trunk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trunk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.