trick
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: trĭk
ipa: /tɹɪk/
ipa: [t̠ʰɹ̠̊ɪk]
ipa: [tʃɹ̠̊ɪk]
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: tricks
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: It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.
text: He played a trick on his sister as April Fool's Day.
glosses: Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
examples: text: And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.
glosses: A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.
examples: text: That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?
text: Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.
ref: 1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters, page 158:
glosses: An entertaining difficult physical action.
examples: text: tricks of the trade; what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?
text: Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.
examples: text: the tricks of boys
text: They played a crude trick on the teacher.
glosses: Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.
examples: text: a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning
text: He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face.
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: The trick of that voice I do well remember.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:
glosses: A particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.
examples: text: I cannot tell , but it stirs me more than all your court curls , or your spangles , or your tricks
ref: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: A knot, braid, or plait of hair.
examples: text: I was able to take the second trick with the queen of hearts.
text: And now (as oft in some distemper'd state) / On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate!
ref: 1712, Alexander Pope, “Canto III”, in The Rape of the Lock, lines 93–94; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 94:
topics: card-games
games
glosses: A sequence in which each player plays a card and a winning play is determined.
examples: text: turn a trick
text: turn tricks
text: Across 110th street / Woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh baby / Across 110th Street / You can find it all in the street
ref: 1972, Bobby Womack, “Across 110th Street”, in Across 110th Street:
text: I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet
Down where Lexington cross 47th Street.
Oh, she's a big girl, she's standing six-foot three,
Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city.
ref: 1975, “Island Girl”, in Bernie Taupin (lyrics), Rock of the Westies, performed by Elton John:
text: Perhaps the most important thing a prostitute learns is how to "manage" the client; how to con him into spending more money than he planned. Learning how to perform tricks takes only a few minutes. Learning how to "hustle" the client takes longer.
ref: 1988, John H. Lindquist, Misdemeanor Crime: Trivial Criminal Pursuit, page 43:
text: "How did you get into all this?" "I started doing tricks when I was young and I don't mean the magic circle. I learned about sex from an early age. There was nothing else to do in Pitsea except heavy petting and getting F grades at school."
ref: 2010, Richard Gill, Paloma Azul, page 139:
text: When he later asked her to strip and perform tricks for him, she refused, and he chased her away. She had similar experiences with other men until she eventually fell into prostitution: […]
ref: 2019, Julie S. Draskoczy, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag:
glosses: A sex act, chiefly one performed for payment; an act of prostitution.
examples: text: As the businessman rounded the corner, she thought, "Here comes another trick."
text: Ten minutes after she got down she broke luck. A white trick in a thirty-seven Buick picked her up. I timed her. She had racehorse speed.
ref: 2011, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, page 99:
synonyms: word: john
word: all-nighter
word: curb crawler
word: fare
word: gonk
word: jane
word: Jane
word: jockey
word: john
word: kerb crawler
word: monger
word: muttonmonger
word: punter
word: score
word: short-timer
word: steamer
word: trick
word: wapping cove
word: whoremaster
word: whoremonger
glosses: A customer or client of a prostitute.
glosses: A term of abuse.
examples: text: On third trick from 12 m. to 8 am, we have W. A. White, formerly operator at Wallula, who thus far has given general satisfaction.
ref: 1885, Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, The Conductor and Brakeman, page 496:
text: Woodside Junction—On 8 hour basis, first trick $60, second trick $60, third trick $50.
ref: 1899, New York (State), Bureau of Statistics, Deptartment of Labor, Annual Report
text: The Union contends that Fifer was entitled to promotion to the position of Group Leader on the third trick in the Core Room Department.
ref: 1949, Labor arbitration reports, page 738:
glosses: A daily period of work, especially in shift-based jobs.
examples: text: I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
ref: 1902, John Masefield, Sea Fever:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A sailor's spell of work at the helm, usually two hours long.
examples: text: The vviles and guiles that vvomen vvorke, / Diſſembled vvith an outvvard ſhevv: / The tricks and toyes that in them lurke, / The Cock that treads thẽ [them] ſhall not knovv, […]
ref: 1599, [anonymous], “When as Thine Eye hath Chose the Dame”, in The Passionate Pilgrime. […], 2nd edition, London: […] [Thomas Judson] for W[illiam] Iaggard, and are to be sold by W[illiam] Leake, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A toy; a trifle; a plaything.
examples: text: Heraldic Collections of various Heralds and others, containing Arms blazoned and in trick, grants of arms, pedigrees, etc.
ref: 1892, George Gatfield, Guide to Printed Books and Manuscripts Relating to English and Foreign Heraldry, page 12:
text: The trick […] might be meant for a lion passant or for one rampant embelif […]
ref: 2009, Thomas Daniel Tremlett, Hugh Stanford London, Rolls of Arms, Henry III., page 132:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A representation of arms that is drawn as an outline with labels to indicate colors.
Synonyms: sense: something designed to fool
word: artifice
word: con
word: gambit
word: ploy
word: rip-off
sense: magic trick
word: illusion
sense: magic trick
word: magic trick
sense: magic trick
word: sleight of hand
sense: daily period of work
word: shift
Hyponyms: cheap trick
dirty trick
hat trick
Jedi mind trick
magic trick
parlor trick
parlour trick
party trick
Derived terms: bag of tricks
Barton-Nackman trick
bed trick
brain trick
card trick
confidence trick
conjuring trick
con trick
Davenport trick
dirty trick vase
dog's trick
dog trick
do the trick
every trick in the book
Gordie Howe hat trick
hat-trick
hidden-ball trick
how's tricks?
Indian rope trick
know every trick in the book
mango trick
miss a trick
one-trick
one-trick pony
one trick pony
one-trick-ponyism
one weird trick
parlor trick
parlour trick
politricks
rope trick
Rosser's trick
Scott's trick
serve someone a trick
the oldest trick in the book
three-card trick
trick cyclist
trickish
trickless
trick mode
trick of the light
trick of the trade
trick-or-treat
trick-or-treater
trick-or-treating
trick play
trick question
tricksical
tricksome
tricksy
trick turner
trick up one's sleeve
trick wig
tricky
turn a trick
turn the trick
turn tricks
vanishing trick