trunk linen.
/ˈtrʌŋk lʌɪn/, U.S. /ˈtrəŋk ˌlaɪn/ 1. A main railway line. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > a railway > forming part of a system > types of
branch line1825
sideline1831
stem1832
light rail1836
suburban1839
branch railway1840
main line1841
spurring1842
local line1843
trunk line1843
extension1852
feeder1855
main trunk1858
loop-line1859
loop1863
spur1878
main1886
spur line1924
1843 R. Wilson Let. 13 Jan. in W. F. Cooke Electric Telegraph (1857) i. 219 Mr. Cooke's first object..would be to get the Telegraph laid down on the Croydon or some other trunk line.
1851 C. Dickens Our School in Househ. Words 11 Oct. 81/1 The Railway had cut it up... A great trunk-line had swallowed the playground.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Trunk-line, the main line of a railway, separate from the branch lines or feeders.
1861 Sat. Rev. 7 Sept. 236 The trunk lines already in existence are substantially all that the country requires.
1888 B. F. C. Costelloe Church Catholic 19 Great trunk lines of liturgical tradition.
2. Telephony. = trunk n. 4c(a).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > line > types of > connecting different areas
trunk line1883
trunk-
1883 Pall Mall Gaz. 6 Dec. 12/2 The cost of laying a trunk line overhead averages about £25 a mile.
1893 W. H. Preece & A. J. Stubbs Man. Telephony xxi. 336 The main trunk lines—those connecting [London] with the various provincial exchanges—are invariably metallic.
1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (subscribers' ed.) cxi. 590 Young and I cut the telegraph, here an important network of trunk and local lines.
1964 M. McLuhan Understanding Media xxx. 306 Radio's use of the telephone in a glorified form of the old trunk-line wire-tapping.
1980 Wall St. Jrnl. 26 Nov. 10/2 The Federal Communications Commission voted to authorize American Telephone & Telegraph Co. to install an optical-fiber telephone trunk line between Washington and N.Y.
3. A large or main pipeline for oil or gas, esp. one from a production field to a refinery or terminal.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > oil and natural gas recovery equipment > [noun] > pipe-line > types of
oleoduct1886
riser pipe1886
trunk line1896
big inch1947
mud-line1974
1896 Redwood & Holloway Petroleum II. vii. 475 As soon as the well is found to yield, the tank is connected by a 2-inch pipe with the trunk line.
1925 A. B. Thompson Oil-field Explor. & Devel. II. xix. 1092 Long-distance trunk lines entail nearly as much work in surveys and construction as a railway.
1975 Offshore Sept. 195/2 The compressor will push the gas shoreward through a 67 mile, 42 inch diameter trunkline to a platform in West Cameron block 167 offshore Louisiana.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1843