tandem trailer
- noun
- /ˈtændəm ˈtreɪlər/
- Specialized
:
remolque tándem
- Using a tandem trailer, the driver was able to haul more freight on the highway.
Examples
-
The next day she handed him a several-page memo on tractor-trailers, including a defense of tandem trailers, themselves the subject of an interstate commerce case.
Academic text (1998) -
The delivery truck was equipped with a tandem trailer to transport extra cargo efficiently.
-
For the long journey, they decided to use a tandem trailer to improve their load capacity.
Synonyms
78
2.0
A large vehicle pulled by a truck to carry goods
How Large
1
4.5
- Specialized
- US
15
3.0
- US
∞
1.0
3
1.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'tandem' = one behind another and 'trailer' = an unpowered freight vehicle, so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to trailers arranged in line. While technical details (typically two trailers pulled by one tractor) are domain-specific, the basic configuration is transparently derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Tandem trailer comes from tandem, an idea like a two-person bicycle where people sit 'one behind the other'. Imagine two trailers hooked in a row and pulled by one truck; that's why the name means 'two trailers attached one behind the other'.