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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Truckle

Truckle \Truc"kle\, n. [Dim. of truck a wheel; or from the kindred L. trochlea a block, sheaf containing one or more pulleys. See Truck a wheel.] A small wheel or caster.
--Hudibras.

Truckle

Truckle \Truc"kle\, v. i. [From truckle in truckle-bed, in allusion to the fact that the truckle-bed on which the pupil slept was rolled under the large bed of the master.] To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another; to submit; to creep. ``Small, trucking states.''
--Burke.

Religion itself is forced to truckle to worldly poliey.
--Norris.

Truckle

Truckle \Truc"kle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Truckled; p. pr. & vb. n. Truckling.] To roll or move upon truckles, or casters; to trundle.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
truckle

"small wheel or roller," late 14c., from Anglo-French trocle, from Latin trochlea "a small wheel, sheaf of a pulley," from Greek trokhileia "a system of pulleys," from trokhos "wheel," from trekhein "to run," from PIE root *dhregh- "to run" (cognates: Old Irish droch "wheel," Lithuanian pa-drosti "to run fast"). Truckle bed "small bed on wheels that can be stowed under a larger bed" is from mid-15c.

truckle

"give up or submit tamely," 1610s, originally "sleep in a truckle bed" (see truckle (n.)). Meaning "give precedence, assume a submissive position" (1650s, implied in truckling) is perhaps in reference to that type of bed being used by servants and inferiors or simply occupying the lower position. Related: Truckled; truckling.

Wiktionary
truckle

Etymology 1 alt. a small wheel; a caster or pulley n. a small wheel; a caster or pulley vb. To roll or move upon truckles, or casters; to trundle. Etymology 2

vb. (context intransitive English) to act in a submissive manner; to fawn, submit to a superior

WordNet
truckle

n. a low bed to be slid under a higher bed [syn: trundle bed, trundle, truckle bed]

truckle
  1. v. yield to out of weakness

  2. try to gain favor by cringing or flattering; "He is always kowtowing to his boss" [syn: fawn, toady, bootlick, kowtow, kotow, suck up]

Wikipedia
Truckle

A "truckle" of cheese refers to a cylindrical wheel of cheese, usually taller than it is wide, and sometimes described as barrel-shaped. The word is derived from the Latin trochlea, 'wheel, pulley'. Truckles vary greatly in size, from the wax-coated cheeses sold in supermarkets, to 25 kilogram or larger artisanal cheeses.

Usage examples of "truckle".

Turning weary on his truckleBed he heard the honey-suckle Lauded in apiarian lay.

He occupied a roomy dilapidated garret, au sixieme, in the Rue Tire-Liard, with a trucklebed and a pianoforte for furniture, and very little else.

Lord Chancellor Eldon, and his own sentiments on the Catholic question, he had exhibited the most incredible specimen of monstrous truckling for office, which the whole history of political tergiversation could furnish.

He had seen her once one might say in extremis, one night unclothed, now face to face across a truckle bed.

There were some strands of rye straw which had broken from the truckle beds on which Anno and his family slept, though.

Turning weary on his truckleBed he heard the honey-suckle Lauded in apiarian lay.

He went to study in Paris with the determination that when he provincial home again he would settle in some provincial town as a general practitioner, and resist the irrational severance between medical and surgical knowledge in the interest of his own scientific pursuits, as well as of the general advance: he would keep away from the range of London intrigues, jealousies, and social truckling, and win celebrity, however slowly, as Jenner had done, by the independent value of his work.

Scarlett had always feared them, even the mildest cow seemed sinister to her, but this was no time to truckle to small fears when great ones crowded so thick upon her.

But his baddog truckling made it seem that he actually cared about what I would answer, and not simply because it would represent a monumental inconvenience to him if I withdrew.

Leggett and the others waved good-bye and Leggett gave me a schoolboy’s wink, as though I was truckling to a teacher.

Athan was a good bowshot or he would not have been here, but he had a truckling manner.