truckle: [15] A truckle is a ‘small wooden wheel or caster’. The word was originally used for a ‘pulley’ (an application which has now largely died out), and it was borrowed from Anglo- Norman trocle. This in turn came via Latin trochlea ‘system of pulleys’ (source of English trochlea [17], an anatomical term for a ‘structure resembling a pulley’) from Greek trokhilíā ‘pulley, system of pulleys, roller, etc’. Trucklebed was a term applied to a sort of low bed on casters that could be pushed under a larger bed when not in use, and the notion of sleeping in the truckle-bed, ‘beneath’ someone in the higher main bed, led in the 17th century to the use of truckle as a verb meaning ‘be subservient’. => trochlea, truck
truckle (n.)
"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 (v.)
"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.
双语例句
1. I am sick of having to truckle to my superiors.
我得对上司惟命是从,这叫我心里实在难受.
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2. Don't truckle under to unreasonable demands.
不要向无理要求屈服.
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3. I hate to truckle to my superiors.
我不喜欢对上司惟命是从.
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4. This country will never truckle to bullies.
这个国家将永不屈从于**者.
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5. You need not truckle to your aunt like that, you are a grown woman now.
