trunk

Meanings

Noun

• Part of a body.
• A container.
• A channel for flow of some kind.
• In software projects under source control: the most current source tree, from which the latest unstable builds (so-called "trunk builds") are compiled.
• The main line or body of anything.
• 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.

Verb

• To lop off; to curtail; to truncate.
• To extract (ores) from the slimes in which they are contained, by means of a trunk.
• To provide simultaneous network access to multiple clients by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies.

Related

Similar words

• boot (UK, Aus), dicky (India)
• tree trunk
• proboscis

Narrower meaning words

• footlocker

Origin

• From Middle English tronke, trunke, borrowed from Old French tronc ("alms box, tree trunk, headless body"), from Latin truncus ("a stock, lopped tree trunk"), from truncus. For the verb, compare French tronquer, and see truncate. truncus, and tronk.