Etymology From Middle English tronke, trunke, from Old French tronc (“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus (“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus (“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. Doublet of truncus and tronk.
Biology, Heading, Natural sciences The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
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Biology, Heading, Natural sciences The torso; especially, the human torso.
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Biology, Heading, Natural sciences The conspicuously extended, mobile, nose-like organ of an animal such as a sengi, a tapir or especially an elephant. The trunks of various kinds of animals might be adapted to probing and sniffing, as in the sengis, or be partly prehensile, as in the tapir, or be a versatile prehensile organ for manipulation, feeding, drinking and fighting as in the elephant.
› A container.
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Heading A large suitcase, chest, or similar receptacle for carrying or storing personal possessions, usually with a hinged, often domed lid, and handles at each end, so that generally it takes two persons to carry a full trunk.
There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors.1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, page 01:
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Heading A box or chest usually covered with leather, metal, or cloth, or sometimes made of leather, hide, or metal, for holding or transporting clothes or other goods.
To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunksc. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
I'm a stunt; ride in the car with some bump in the trunk.2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:
Heading A chute or conduit, or a watertight shaft connecting two or more decks.
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Heading A long, large box, pipe, or conductor, made of plank or metal plates, for various uses, as for conveying air to a mine or to a furnace, water to a mill, grain to an elevator, etc.
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HeadingArchaic A long tube through which pellets of clay, peas, etc., are driven by the force of the breath. A peashooter
He shot Sugar Plums at them out of a Trunk.1655, James Howell, “To the Lord Viscount Col. from Madrid”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:
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Business, Heading, Mining A flume or sluice in which ores are separated from the slimes in which they are contained.
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences, Software In software projects under source control: the most current source tree, from which the latest unstable builds (so-called "trunk builds") are compiled.
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The main line or body of anything.
the trunk of a vein or of an artery, as distinct from the branches
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Transport A main line in a river, canal, railroad, or highway system.
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Architecture The part of a pilaster between the base and capital, corresponding to the shaft of a column.
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A large pipe forming the piston rod of a steam engine, of sufficient diameter to allow one end of the connecting rod to be attached to the crank, and the other end to pass within the pipe directly to the piston, thus making the engine more compact.
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Abbreviation, Ellipsis, In plural Ellipsis of swimming trunks.
Etymology From Middle English tronke, trunke, from Old French tronc (“alms box, tree trunk, headless body”), from Latin truncus (“a stock, lopped tree trunk”), from truncus (“cut off, maimed, mutilated”). For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. Doublet of truncus and tronk.
Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stocke / Forth gushed, like fresh water streame from riuen rocke.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10:
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Business, Mining To extract (ores) from the slimes in which they are contained, by means of a trunk.