English

Alternative forms

• troccle (obsolete)

Noun

truckle ‎(plural truckles)

1. a small wheel; a caster or pulley

Derived terms

• truckle bed

Verb

truckle ‎(third-person singular simple present truckles, present participle truckling, simple past and past participle truckled)

1. To roll or move upon truckles, or casters; to trundle.

Etymology 2

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.

Verb

truckle ‎(third-person singular simple present truckles, present participle truckling, simple past and past participle truckled)

1. (intransitive) to act in a submissive manner; to fawn, submit to a superior
   • 1899, William Graham Sumner, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, in War and Other Essays, Yale, published 1911, page 302:

     There is no doubt […] that truckling to popularity is the worst political vice.

   • Norris

     Religion itself is forced to truckle to worldly policy.

Derived terms

• truckler

Translations

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967