trunk line

noun

a major long-distance transportation line.
trunk (def. 8).

Origin of trunk line

First recorded in 1850–55

Words Nearby trunk line

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use trunk line in a sentence

In the fifties plans had been made for a main trunk line to run from Halifax to the Detroit River.
The Canadian Dominion | Oscar D. Skelton
At Vicenza the highroad is joined by another trunk-line from Padua, 32 kilometres to the southwest.
Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor Car | Francis Miltoun
A second later he was speaking with the man who had actually witnessed the cutting of the trunk line.
The Invasion | William Le Queux
Even as late as 1882, over four-fifths of the eastbound trunk line traffic originated not further west than Illinois.
Railroads: Rates and Regulations | William Z. Ripley
In 1876 the first attempt at a systematic scheme of rate adjustment between competing localities was made in trunk line territory.
Railroads: Rates and Regulations | William Z. Ripley

British Dictionary definitions for trunk line

trunk line

noun

a direct link between two telephone exchanges or switchboards that are a considerable distance apart
the main route or routes on a railway

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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