n. A long conduit or system with grids through which cotton is forced to be cleared of dust and refuse in its passage from the opener to the scutcher or picker.n. In ship-building, a large inclosed duct or passage through the decks or bulkheads of a vessel for coaling, ventilation, passing ammunition, etc.n. A trunk-line.Chief; main; principal: as, the trunk mains of a system of water or gas distribution; a trunk railway line.n. The woody stem of a tree, from which the branches spring.n. In architecture, the shaft of a column; the part between the base and the capital. The term is sometimes used to signify the die or body of a pedestal. See cut under column.n. The main part or stem of a branching organ or system of organs, considered apart from its ramifications: as, the trunk of an artery, a vein, or a nerve; the trunk of a zoöphyte or coral. Also truncus.n. The human body or that of an animal without the head and limbs, and, in animals, the tail, or considered apart from these; in literary use, the body.n. A receptacle with stiff sides and a hinged cover or upper part, used especially for carrying clothes, toilet articles, etc., for a journey.n. In fishing, an iron hoop with a bag, used to catch crustaceans.n. A tube of various kinds and uses.n. A telescope.n. A pea- or bean-shooter; a long tube through which peas, pellets, etc., were driven by the force of the breath.n. A boxed passage for air to or from a blast-apparatus or blowing-engine; an air-shaft.n. A boxed passage up or down which grain or flour is conveyed in an elevator or mill.n. A box-tube used to send attle or rubbish out of a mine, or to convey coal to a wagon or heap, broken quartz from a mill to the stamps, etc.n. A long, narrow trough which was formerly used in Cornwall in dressing copper- and tin-slimes.n. A wooden box or pipe of square section in which air is conveyed in a mine.n. A kibble.n. A trough to convey water from a race to a water-wheel, etc.; a flume; a penstock.n. In trunk-engines, a section of pipe attached to a piston and moving longitudinally with it, its diameter being sufficient to allow one end of the connecting-rod to be attached to the crank and the other end directly to the piston, thus dispensing with an intermediate rod: used in marine engines for driving propellers, also in some stationary steam-engines, and extensively in caloric engines.n. A proboscis; a long snout; especially, the proboscis of the elephant; less frequently, the proboscis of other animals, as butterflies, flies, mosquitos and other gnats, and certain mollusks and worms. See the applications of proboscis.n. plural Trunk-hose.n. In hat-manuf., the tube or directing passage in a machine for forming the bodies of hats, which confines the air-currents, and guides the fibers of fur from the picker to the cone.n. plural Same as troll-madam or pigeonholes.To lop off; curtail; truncate.To separate, as tin or copper ore, from the worthless veinstone, by the use of the trunk.
