Definition of "truss" []

• Medicine A supportive device, usually a pad with a belt, worn to prevent enlargement of a hernia or the return of a reduced hernia. (noun)
• A rigid framework, as of wooden beams or metal bars, designed to support a structure, such as a roof. (noun)
• Architecture A bracket. (noun)
• Something gathered into a bundle; a pack. (noun)
• Nautical An iron fitting by which a lower yard is secured to a mast. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But we have decided never to give up the word truss; in spite of the fact that its use makes it harder to get people to believe our advertisements."
• "And there are now so many people wearing Cluthe Automatic Massaging Trusses, or who have worn them until cured, that simply by one man recommending the Cluthe Truss to another the prejudice against the word truss is bound to be overcome in time."
• "Drivers in Tysons Corner are seeing a large horizontal crane, also known as a truss, positioned near the Capital Beltway."