Challenge
truck·le- [truhk-uhl]
-verb (used without object), -led, -ling. to submit or yield obsequiously or tamely (usually fol. by to): Don't truckle to unreasonable demands.
Is there a word in the English language more delicious to pronounce than this? It sounds like a cross between truffle and buckle.
Context of discovery:
"It may be that Britain had declined so far, and had been told so often that she had declined even further, that she eagerly adopted the role for which she had been cast, and, convinced that she was a weak and spineless creature who would truckle to the powerful and ruthless, began to be such a creature, and to truckle to anybody who would pause long enough to be truckled to. Since it was in the interests of the Russians to be truckled to by Britain, their leaders were always willing to stop for a truckle, and since there seemed no likelihood that the due tribute of truckle would ever be denied, the process continued, and even increased..."
-Bernard Levin, Run it Down the Flagpole, 1970
There are only two actual sentences in the preceding passage, and six uses of the word truckle. I can just picture this guy chuckling to himself at his typewriter.
-verb (used without object), -led, -ling. to submit or yield obsequiously or tamely (usually fol. by to): Don't truckle to unreasonable demands.
Is there a word in the English language more delicious to pronounce than this? It sounds like a cross between truffle and buckle.
Context of discovery:
"It may be that Britain had declined so far, and had been told so often that she had declined even further, that she eagerly adopted the role for which she had been cast, and, convinced that she was a weak and spineless creature who would truckle to the powerful and ruthless, began to be such a creature, and to truckle to anybody who would pause long enough to be truckled to. Since it was in the interests of the Russians to be truckled to by Britain, their leaders were always willing to stop for a truckle, and since there seemed no likelihood that the due tribute of truckle would ever be denied, the process continued, and even increased..."
-Bernard Levin, Run it Down the Flagpole, 1970
There are only two actual sentences in the preceding passage, and six uses of the word truckle. I can just picture this guy chuckling to himself at his typewriter.