Definition of "truss"

truss

/tɹʌs/

noun
plural trusses
1. A bandage and belt used to hold a hernia in place.
  Quotations
  A truss may keep the abdominal contents from protruding into the hernial sac; however, this won't cure the hernia.
  2008, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, chapter 4, in Professional Guide to Diseases, page 280
2. (architecture) A structure made up of one or more triangular units made from straight beams of wood or metal, which is used to support a structure as in a roof or bridge.
3. (architecture) A triangular bracket.
4. An old English farming measurement. One truss of straw equalled 36 pounds, a truss of old hay equalled 56 pounds, a truss of new hay equalled 60 pounds, and 36 trusses equalled one load.
5. (obsolete) A bundle; a package.
  Quotations
  bearing a truss of trifles at his back
  1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Aegloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; republished as The Shepheardes Calender […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], 1586,
6. (historical) A padded jacket or dress worn under armour, to protect the body from the effects of friction.
  Quotations
  Puts off his palmer's weed unto his truss, which bore / The stains of ancient arms.
  1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613
7. (historical) Part of a woman's dress; a stomacher.
8. (botany) A tuft of flowers or cluster of fruits formed at the top of the main stem of certain plants.
9. (nautical) The rope or iron used to keep the centre of a yard to the mast.
verb
third-person singular simple present trusses, present participle trussing, simple past and past participle trussed
1. (transitive) To tie up a bird before cooking it.
2. (transitive) To secure or bind with ropes.
3. (transitive) To support.
4. To take fast hold of; to seize and hold firmly; to pounce upon.
  Quotations
  who trussing me as eagle doth his prey
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 18
5. To strengthen or stiffen, as a beam or girder, by means of a brace or braces.
6. (slang, archaic) To execute by hanging; to hang; usually with up.
  Quotations
  If they must truss me, I will repent of nothing
  1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, III, or IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company

Definition of "truss"

truss

noun

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verb

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