trick
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: trĭk
ipa: /tɹɪk/
ipa: [t̠ʰɹ̠̊ɪk]
ipa: [tʃɹ̠̊ɪk]
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: tricks
form: tricking
form: tricked
form: tricked
Etymology: From Middle English trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier (“to defraud, act dishonestly, conceal, deceive, cheat”); > modern French tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen (“to launch a shot at, play a trick on”), or one of its derivatives (e.g. Middle High German ūftrechen (“to do something to someone, hurt someone”), vertrechen (“to conceal, get over on someone”), zuotrechen (“to obtain falsely or deceitfully, wangle, finagle”), etc.); yet the Old French verb is equally likely to be derived from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Late Latin tricāre, from Latin trīcor, trīcārī (“dodge, search for detours; haggle, quibble”).
The term has been connected to Middle Dutch treck, trec (“draw, line, desire, game move, cord, stratagem, ruse, trick”), from Middle Dutch trekken, trēken (“to pull, place, put, move”), from Old Dutch *trekken, *trekan (“to move, drag”), from Proto-Germanic *trakjaną, *trekaną (“to drag, scrape, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- (“to drag, scrape”). If they are related, trick would be cognate with Low German trekken, Middle High German trecken, trechen, Danish trække, and Old Frisian trekka, Romanian truc and other Romance languages.
Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.
Senses: examples: text: You tried to trick me when you said that house was underpriced.
text: I was once tricked into believing I had left my phone in the locker.
glosses: To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.
examples: text: The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, / Black as his purpose, did the night resemble / When he lay couched in the ominous horse, / Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd / With heraldry more dismal; head to foot / Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd / With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons […]
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: They forget that they are in the statutes: […] there they are trick'd, they and their pedigrees.
ref: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act I:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: To draw (as contrasted with to blazon, which is to describe in words).
examples: text: [T]his Pillar [the "Compounded Order"] is nothing in effect, but a Medlie, or an Amaſſe of all the precedent Ornaments, making a nevv kinde, by ſtealth, and though the moſt richly tricked, yet the pooreſt in this, that he is a borrovver of all his Beautie.
ref: 1624, Henry Wotton, “The Seate, and the Worke”, in The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC, I. part, page 38:
text: Tricking up their children in fine clothes.
ref: 1693, [John Locke], “(please specify the section number)”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
text: Trick her off in air.
ref: 1735, Alexander Pope, Of the Characters of Women:
text: They are simple, but majestic, records of the feelings of the poet; as little tricked out for the public eye as his diary would have been.
ref: 1825, Thomas Macaulay, An Essay on John Milton:
glosses: To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.
examples: text: 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
[…] and suddenly it was Maryellin, he & I in the bed. The guy was tall, lean & hard. Absolutely lovely body. For me, it was like my old tricking days.
text: Asked whether one possible way for lesbians to increase sexual satisfaction within a relationship would be to "trick" outside it, Pearlman said that this could be a "terrific turn-on" if done right, but that she generally wouldn't recommend it because of the high risk of jealousy and breakups.
ref: 1985 April 20, Betsy Duren, “Women's Studies Conference: Sex and Culture”, in Gay Community News, page 7:
glosses: To engage in prostitution or casual sex.
Synonyms: sense: to fool
word: con
sense: to fool
word: dupe
sense: to fool
word: fool
sense: to fool
word: gull
sense: to fool
word: have
sense: to fool
word: hoodwink
sense: to fool
word: pull the wool over someone's eyes
sense: to fool
word: rip off
sense: to trick out
word: mod
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: tricker
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trickery
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trickiness
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: tricknology
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trick off
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trick or treat
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trick out
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trick point
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trick shot
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trickster
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: trick up
sense: Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick
word: tricky