trouchman; see [truchman].
troul, trowl; see [troll].
trow, to think, believe, suppose; ‘I trow not’, Bible, Luke xvii. 9; 2 Hen. VI, ii. 4. 38; v. 1. 85. I trow, added to questions expressive of contemptuous or indignant surprise; ‘Who’s there, I trow?’, Merry Wives, i. 4. 140; ii. 1. 64; also trow alone; ‘What is the matter, trow?’, Cymbeline, i. 6. 47. In prov. use in the north country (EDD.). ME. trowen (Chaucer, C. T. A. 691), OE. trūwian, to believe confidently, to trust in a person or thing (Sweet).
trowses, close-fitting drawers; ‘Four wild Irish in trowses’, Ford, Perkin Warbeck, iii. 1 (Stage-direction); B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1 (Pennyboy Junior); hence, trowzed, clad in ‘trowses’, ‘Poor trowz’d Irish’, Drayton, Pol. xxii. 1577. F. trousses, the breeches of a page (Littré); cp. O. Irish truibhas, close-fitting breeches and stockings (O’Curry, Introd., p. 384); Irish triubhas (Dinneen). See Dict. (s.v. Trousers).
Troy-novant, or New Troy, London. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 46; Peele, Descensus Astraeae, l. 18 from end; id., A Farewell, &c., l. 4; ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth . . . reporteth that Brute lineally descended from the demi-god Aeneas . . . about the year of the world 2855, and 1108 before the nativity of Christ, built this city (London) near unto the river now called Thames, and named it Troynovant or Trenovant’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, 1). London was the capital of the British tribe, the Trinobantes, one of its ancient names being Augusta Trinobantum, whence the Anglo-F. Troynovant; but by popular etymology Troynovant was connected with the Troia nova (new Troy) of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Nennius.
truage, tribute. Morte Arthur, leaf 35, back, 4; bk. i, c. 23. ME. truage (Rob. Glouc.). OF. truage, treuaige, treutage, ‘vectigal, tributum’, deriv. of true, treü, trehu, ‘tributum’, see Ducange (s.v. Truagium). OF. treü is the same word as L. tributum; cp. O. Prov. traüt, trabut, ‘tribut’ (Levy). See Dict. M. and S. (s.v. Trewage).
truchman, an interpreter. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 2 (Crites); tr. of Horace, Art of Poetry, III (= L. interpete); Holland. Pliny, Nat. Hist., bk. vii, ch. 24; Hakluyt, Voyages, ii. 152; Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid (ed. Arber, 82); trucheman, Puttenham, Eng. Poes. (ed. Arber, 278); trouchman, Three Lords and Three Ladies; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 463. See Nares. F. trucheman (Cotgr.), O. Prov. trocheman, Span. trujaman (Stevens), Arab. tarjumân (Dozy, 351). See Stanford (s.v. Dragoman).
truckle-bed, a bed which could be wheeled under a larger one, Hall, Satires, ii, sat. 6; ‘troccle-bed’, Statutes Trinity Coll., Oxford (ann. 1556). An Oxford University word. L. trochlea, wheel of a pulley. Gk. τροχιλία, a pulley. See Dict.
true, honest. Bible, Gen. xlii. 11; Much Ado, iii. 3. 54; L. L. L. iv. 3. 187; ‘The thieves have bound the true men’, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2. 98; ‘Rich preys make true men thieves’, Venus and Ad. 724. See Wright’s Bible Word-Book.
true-penny, honest fellow; used familiarly. Hamlet, i. 5. 150; Fletcher, Loyal Subject, i. 3 (Putskie).