troak

English

Alternative forms

• troke

Etymology

From Scots troak.

Pronunciation

• (British) IPA^(key): /tɹəʊk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) enPR: trōk, IPA^(key): /tɹoʊk/
• Rhymes: -əʊk, -oʊk

Verb

troak (third-person singular simple present troaks, present participle troaking, simple past and past participle troaked)

1. (Scotland) To barter or trade, especially outside a government monopoly.
   • 1812, William Rankin, “A Friendly Hint to a Porter Brewer”, in Poems, on Different Subjects‎^[1], Archibald Allardice, page 97:

     What's this for cash your tapster troaks, / That colics and affronts the fowks?

   • 1823, Walter Scott, Saint Ronan's Well‎^[2], page 119:

     She'll not loose the letters that come to her by the King's post, and she must go on troking wi' the old carrier, as if there was no post-house in the neighbourhood.

   • 1873 May, Robert Brown, “A Cruise with the Whalers in Baffin's Bay”, in Ocean Highways: The Geographical Record‎^[3], volume 1, number II, N. Trübner and Co., page 51:

     The trade of Greenland is a strict monopoly of the Danish Government, and accordingly the Government puts a check upon any trading or fishing within a certain distance of the coast. It does not, however, prohibit the sale of small articles not used in their trade being sold, and accordingly, in addition to obtaining news of the ice and such-like other lore, here commences a curious traffic with the natives, well-known, to the Scottish whalers at least, under the name of "troaking" or bartering.

2. (Scotland) To have familiar intercourse.
   • 1901, J. H. Balfour Browne, “‘Roaring Games’”, in Essays in Paradox‎^[4], Longmans, Green & Co., page 152:

     In those days, when Prince and Adam were my heroes, I had no "troakings" with lassies. "Troakings" came afterwards, and these deserve a whole essay to themselves.

   • 1904, S. R. Crockett, Raiderland: All About Grey Galloway‎^[5], Dodd, Mead & Co., page 83:

     But as soon as we had driven these same kings and queens into exile, we became tremendously loyal, and kept up constant trokings with the exiled at Carisbrook, in Holland, or drinking to "the king over the water."

Synonyms

• (barter, trade): swap, swop

Translations

exchange goods or services without involving money

• Arabic: قايض
• Bulgarian: разменям (bg) (razmenjam), правя бартер (pravja barter)
• Dutch: ruilen (nl)
• Finnish: tehdä vaihtokauppa, vaihtaa (fi)
• French: troquer (fr)
• German: tauschen (de)
• Italian: barattare (it)
• Spanish: trocar (es)
• Swedish: idka byteshandel

Noun

troak (uncountable)

1. (Scotland) Barter; exchange; truck.
2. (Scotland) Small wares.
3. (Scotland) Familiar intercourse.

Anagrams

• Karto-, Korat, Tokar

Scots

Alternative forms

• troke

Etymology

From Middle English trukken, trukien (> English truck), from Old French troquier, of Germanic origin. Compare German Trug (“deceit, trickery, deception”). More at truck.

Verb

troak (third-person singular simple present troaks, present participle troakin, simple past troakt, past participle troakt)

1. To barter or trade, especially outside a government monopoly.
   • 1755 May 9, Allan Ramsay, Blyth may he be wha o'er the haugh‎^[6], The Edinburgh Magazine; or, Literary Miscellany, published 1787 January 31, page 40:

     That chiels, fated to skelp vile dubs thro', / For living are obliged to rub thro' / To fend by troaking, buying, selling, / The profit's aft no worth the telling.

   • 1773, Robert Ferguson, “The Election”, in Poems on Various Subjects‎^[7], T. Ruddiman & Co., page 171:

     Ye lowns that troke in doctor's stuff, / You'll now hae unco slaisters.

   • 1786 April 3, Robert Burns, “To Mr. John Kennedy”, in Allan Cunningham, editor, The Works of Robert Burns‎^[8], Hilliard, Gray, & Co., published 1835, page 227:

     Now if ye're ane o' warl's folk, / Wha rate the wearer by the cloak / An' sklent on poverty their joke / Wi' bitter sneer, / Wi' you no friendship I will troke / Nor cheap nor dear.

   • 1822, Hew Ainslie, “Pig Tibby, and the Pilgrims”, in A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns‎^[9], page 232:

     Cadging about the track-pats, pouries an' succar bowls; getting baubees for them whiles, an' whiles troaking them for auld rags, eggs, and ait meal.

2. (Scotland) To have familiar intercourse.
   • 1922, S. R. Crockett, The Raiders: Being Some Passages in the Life of John Faa‎^[10], Eveleigh Nash & Grayson Ltd., page 54:

     I wad hae ye ken, Laird Heron ... that there are many decent men ... who have no trokings or comradeship with Yawkins, the Marshalls, and their like.

Noun

troak (uncountable)

1. Barter; exchange; truck.
2. Small wares.
   • 1894, Alan Reid, “In Memory of Happy Days”, in Sangs o' the Heatherland‎^[11], J. & R. Parlane, page 17:

     His wreatin'-desk, 'mang ither troaks, was mine.

3. Familiar intercourse.