trailer

trailer

1. a road vehicle, usually two-wheeled, towed by a motor vehicle: used for transporting boats, etc.

2. the part of an articulated lorry that is drawn by the cab

3. a series of short extracts from a film, used to advertise it in a cinema or on television

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Trailer

 

a motorless wheeled vehicle towed by an automobile or tractor truck.

A trailer usually has a closed body or a platform with sideboards. Special-purpose trailers have a body designed for specific freight. “Broken-up” trailers are used in hauling long loads; they are connected to the prime mover by the load itself. Trailers are also used as mobile installation bases for various equipment, such as compressor stations. The load-carrying capacity of single-axle trailers usually is no more than 2 tons. Two-axle trailers can carry 8 tons, and multiaxle trailers with large loads that cannot be broken up can manage 20–50 tons or more. Trailers are connected to the tractor by a draft bar. To lower the height of the load and to improve stability, trailers are sometimes built with a low frame. Trailers are equipped with outlining lights.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

trailer

[′trā·lər]

(electronics)

A bright streak at the right of a dark area or dark line in a television picture, or a dark area or streak at the right of a bright part; usually due to insufficient gain at low video frequencies.

(mechanical engineering)

The section of a semitrailer that is pulled by the tractor.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

trailer

In communications, a code or set of codes that make up the last part of a transmitted message. See trailer label.

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