Word.ws English Dictionary

trunnel

/ˈtɹʌn.əl/

trunnel is the alternative form of treenail.

trunnel is the alternative form of trundle.

Meaning of treenail

Noun

treenail (plural treenails)

  1. A wooden peg or pin used as a fastener.
    • OPERATION—The wood for the treenail is fixed in G; the balance wheel is then moved....1847, editorial staff, “TREENAIL MACHINE”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 10, page 73

Meaning of trundle

Noun

trundle (plural trundles)

  1. (obsolete) A low wagon or cart on small wheels, used to transport things.
    • […] you may […] place the whole weighty Clod upon a Trundle to be convey’d, and Replanted where you please,1670, John Evelyn, chapter 3, in Sylva, or, A Discourse of Forest-Trees, London, page 21
  2. (obsolete) A small wheel or roller.
  3. A motion as of something moving upon little wheels or rollers; a rolling motion.
    • There was something expert and even vicious in the flick of Paul’s arm and the hard momentary trundle of the [cricket] ball along the curving rails.2011, Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child, New York: Knopf, Part 3, Chapter 6, p. 276
  4. The sound made by an object being moved on wheels.
    • […] an old man who could always be located from far away by the sound of a scythe or the trundle of a wheelbarrow.1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, Book 2, Chapter 1, section 5, p. 143
  5. A lantern wheel, or one of its bars.
    • The Cog-wheels in most Wind-Mills are (in the diameter) 8. foot or under […] the trundle is at the least two foot, which is 4. to one.1651, Cressy Dymock, An Invention of Engines in Motion, London: Richard Woodnoth, page 5
  6. (rare) A spool or skein of golden thread (chiefly in the arms of the Embroiderers Company, now the Company of Broderers).
    • between as many Trundles, Or […]1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 14

See all 14 meanings of trundle

Forms of trunnel

pluraltrunnels

Words that rhyme with trunnel

Questions about trunnel

What is trunnel the alternative form of?
Trunnel is the alternative form of treenail.
How do you pronounce trunnel?
Trunnel is pronounced /ˈtɹʌn.əl/.

Words near trunnel in the dictionary

  1. trunkmaking
  2. trunks
  3. trunksful
  4. trunkwood
  5. trunky
  6. trunnel
  7. Trunnell
  8. Trunnells
  9. trunnels
  10. trunnion
  11. trunnion plate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trunnel (page history and authors); treenail (page history and authors); trundle (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.

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Cite this entry: “trunnel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trunnel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.