truncate

From Latin truncātus, perfect passive participle of truncō (“maim, reduce to a trunk”); see trunk as a verb.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɹʌŋˈkeɪt/

• Audio (UK)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌŋˌkeɪt/

truncate (third-person singular simple present truncates, present participle truncating, simple past and past participle truncated)

1. (transitive) To shorten (something) by, or as if by, cutting part of it off.
   • 1960 March, J. P. Wilson & E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 149:

     All these great plans were in vain, however, for in the cold dawn following the "Mania" years of 1845-46 the M.B.M. & M.J.R. project was truncated to an 11½-mile line from Ambergate to Rowsley.

2. (mathematics, transitive) To shorten (a decimal number) by removing trailing (or leading) digits.
3. (geometry) To replace a corner by a plane (or to make a similar change to a crystal).

• (mathematics): round down

• trunk
• truncation

• (geometry): dual polyhedron

truncate (not comparable)

1. Truncated.
2. (botany, anatomy) Having an abrupt termination.

• truncate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• truncate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

truncāte

1. vocative masculine singular of truncātus