Meaning
To give or take goods on credit. To 'truss' a customer is to let them have something now and pay later, and to ask for a 'truss' is to ask for credit until money comes in. A long-standing practice at the corner shop and with the higgler, trussing rests on trust and knowing your customer, and in hard times the little book of who owes what is a lifeline for both buyer and seller. The word, worn from 'trust', names the whole everyday economy of buying on tick that keeps poor households fed between paydays.
Examples
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Beg yuh truss mi a bag a rice till Friday.
Please let me have a bag of rice on credit until Friday.
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Di shop nuh truss nobody again.
The shop doesn't give anyone credit anymore.
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Him owe pure truss all bout.
He owes credit debts all over the place.
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Mr Brown, gimme a trus till Friday, nuh?
Mr Brown, give me credit until Friday, please?
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She buy di rice an flour pon trus.
She bought the rice and flour on credit.
Origin
From English 'trust' — extending trust in the form of credit; the Jamaican pronunciation hardens it to 'truss'.
How it’s used
A cornerstone of small-shop and market life, where regular customers 'get truss' until payday. To be cut off from 'truss' is a real hardship. As a noun, a 'trus' is the credit itself: to 'buy pon trus' is to buy on credit.