A truck (North American, Irish and Australian English) or lorry (British and Commonwealth English) is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful, and may be configured to mount specialized equipment, such as in the case of fire trucks and concrete mixers and suction excavators. Modern trucks are powered by either gasoline or diesel engines, with diesel dominant in commercial applications. In the European Union vehicles with a gross combination mass of less than 3,500 kilograms (7,716 lb) are known as Light commercial vehicles and those over as Large goods vehicles.

Noun

truck (countable and uncountable; plural trucks)

1. A small wheel or roller, specifically the wheel of a gun-carriage
   • 1843, James Fenimore Cooper, Wyandotte, Chapter 3

     "Put that cannon up once, and I'll answer for it that no Injin faces it. 'Twill be as good as a dozen sentinels," answered Joel. "As for mountin', I thought of that before I said a syllable about the crittur. There's the new truck-wheels in the court, all ready to hold it, and the carpenters can put the hinder part to the whull, in an hour or two."

2. The ball on top of a flagpole
3. (nautical) On a wooden mast, a circular disc (or sometimes a rectangle) of wood near or at the top of the mast, usually with holes or sheaves to reeve signal halyards; also a temporary or emergency place for a lookout. "Main" refers to the mainmast, whereas a truck on another mast may be called (on the mizzenmast, for example) "mizzen-truck".
   • 1851 Melville, Herman Moby Dick, Chapter 9.

     But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the main-truck higher than the kelson is low?

4. (countable, uncountable)(US) A semi-tractor ("semi") trailer; (UK) a lorry

   Mexican open-bed trucks haul most of the fresh produce that comes into the United States from Mexico.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbit, Chapter 1

     A line of fifty trucks from the Zenith Steel and Machinery Company was attacked by strikers-rushing out from the sidewalk, pulling drivers from the seats, smashing carburetors and commutators, while telephone girls cheered from the walk, and small boys heaved bricks.

   • 2009, James Beach, Peterbilt: Long-Haul Legend, page 48:

     That's why driving truck became more than a job for many in the industry. Driving truck was a lifestyle.

5. Any motor vehicle designed for carrying cargo, including delivery vans, pickups, and other motorized vehicles (including passenger autos) fitted with a bed designed to carry goods
6. A garden cart, a two-wheeled wheelbarrow
7. A small wagon or cart, of various designs, pushed or pulled by hand or (obsolete) pulled by an animal, as with those in hotels for moving luggage, or in libraries for transporting books
   • 1906, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle Chapter 3

     From the doors of these rooms went men with loaded trucks, to the platform where freight cars were waiting to be filled; and one went out there and realized with a start that he had come at last to the ground floor of this enormous building.

8. A pantechnicon (removal van)
9. (UK) A flatbed railway car
10. A pivoting frame, one attached to the bottom of the bed of a railway car at each end, that rests on the axle and which swivels to allow the axle (at each end of which is a solid wheel) to turn with curves in the track. The axle on many types of railway car is not attached to the truck and relies on gravity to remain within the truck's brackets (on the truck's base) that hold the axle in place
    • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers

      Far away he could hear the sharp clinking of the trucks on the railway. No, it was not they that were far away. They were there in their places. But where was he himself?

11. The part of a skateboard that joins the wheels to the deck, consisting of a hanger, baseplate, kingpin, and bushings, and sometimes mounted with a riser in between.
12. (theatre) A platform with wheels or casters
13. dirt or other messiness
    • Aunt Polly looked at the jam on Huck's face, and said, "What is that truck?" - Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

• hand truck
• monster truck
• pick-up truck

• pickup truck
• sound truck
• tow truck
• truck stop, truckstop
• (military) (dated) truck-wheels