Trunk Meaning
/tɹʌŋk/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounPart of a body.
nounPart of a body., The usually single, more or less upright part of a tree, between the roots and the branches.
Sentence Examples
The label is attached to the trunk.
Is your trunk locked?
The trunk was too heavy for him to manage.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The massive old oak tree had a thick ____ that supported its many branches.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The elephant used its long ____ to spray water over its back and stay cool during the hot afternoon today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunks"
— c. 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:
"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:
"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:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The massive old oak tree had a thick ____ that supported its many branches.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The elephant used its long ____ to spray water over its back and stay cool during the hot afternoon today.