The word truck is used in various different ways in different varieties of English. Here are some meanings:
A truck, or motor truck, is a motor vehicle for transporting goods. In British English these are also known as Heavy Goods Vehicles or lorries, although this US English meaning of the word is becoming more widely used in Britain too. (In US English a lorry is an open railroad car with a tipping trough, often found in mines.)
A railroad truck is in US English a rotatable frame holding a pair (or more usually two pairs) of wheels and which supports one end of a railroad car or locomotive. In British English. this is called a bogie.
A railway truck in an informal British English word for what is officially known as a railway (goods) wagon or van (in US English a railroad freight car); it may be open (e.g. a coal truck) or covered (e.g. a cattle truck).
A hand truck is in US English a small handcart. It consists of a metal plate attached to metal tubing and two large wheels. The metal tubing is bent to form a long handle, so as to provide good mechanical advantage. The metal plate is slipped under large heavy objects, and the truck and object are tilted backward until the weight is balanced over the large wheels, making otherwise bulky and heavy objects easy to move.
A library truck is a set of bookshelves on wheels used to move books around in a library; known in British English as a library trolley.
In nautical use, a masthead truck is a wooden cap at the top of a masthead, with holes in it through which halyards are passed.
To truck is also a (now little used) verb meaning to barter or market; it survives in such expressions as to have no truck with someone and truck farming.
A truck farm is one that grows market-garden produce (fruit and vegetables).
A skateboard truck, along with griptape, wheels, bearings, bolts, and a deck, compose a complete skateboard.
The truck number number of something is slang for how many people who are part of a project can get hit by a truck before the project collapses.
In some countries (ie. Denmark) truck is short for forklift truck (note, however, that the "u" of the Danish word is pronounced like the "u" of "super").
Truck can also mean worthless goods or junk. Usage in this context can be seen in Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer: "Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?" (Chapter 1)
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Steam-powered trucks were sold in France and the United States until the eve of World War I, and the beginning of World War II in the United Kingdom.
Trucks are subject to noise emission requirements (emanating from the U.S. Noise Control Act) in order to protect the public from noise health effects, since trucks contribute disproportionately to roadway noise due to elevated stacks and intense tire and aerodynamic noise characteristics.
The chassis or frame of a truck is commonly constructed mainly of two beams, and several crossmembers and fishplates.
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