Wiktionary

trick

See also: Trick

EnglishEdit

 
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EtymologyEdit

Uncertain.

If the second proposal is correct, the term is 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.

PronunciationEdit

  • enPR: trĭk, IPA(key): /tɹɪk/, [t̠ʰɹ̠̊ɪk], [tʃɹ̠̊ɪk]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪk

NounEdit

trick (plural tricks)

  1. Something designed to fool or swindle.
    It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.
  2. A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.
    And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.
  3. An entertaining difficult physical action.
    That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?
    • 1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters (page 158)
      Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.
  4. An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.
    tricks of the trade;  what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      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.
  5. Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.
    the tricks of boys
    They played a crude trick on the teacher.
  6. (dated) A particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.
    a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning
  7. A knot, braid, or plait of hair.
    • 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, OCLC 316392309, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      I cannot tell , but it stirs me more than all your court curls , or your spangles , or your tricks
  8. (card games) A sequence in which each player plays a card and a winning play is determined.
    I was able to take the second trick with the queen of hearts.
    • 1712, Pope, Alexander, “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:
      And now (as oft in some distemper'd state) / On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate!
  9. (slang) A sex act, chiefly one performed for payment; an act of prostitution.
    turn a trick
    turn tricks
    • 1988, John H. Lindquist, Misdemeanor Crime: Trivial Criminal Pursuit, page 43:
      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.
    • 2010, Richard Gill, Paloma Azul, page 139:
      "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."
    • 2019, Julie S. Draskoczy, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag:
      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: […]
  10. (slang) A customer or client of a prostitute.
    Synonyms: john; see also Thesaurus:prostitute's client
    As the businessman rounded the corner, she thought, "Here comes another trick."
    • 2011, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life (page 99)
      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.
  11. (slang, vulgar) A term of abuse.
  12. A daily period of work, especially in shift-based jobs.
    • 1885, Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, The Conductor and Brakeman, page 496:
      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.
    • 1899, New York (State), Bureau of Statistics, Deptartment of Labor, Annual Report:
      Woodside Junction—On 8 hour basis, first trick $60, second trick $60, third trick $50.
    • 1949, Labor arbitration reports, page 738
      The Union contends that Fifer was entitled to promotion to the position of Group Leader on the third trick in the Core Room Department.
  13. (nautical) A sailor's spell of work at the helm, usually two hours long.
    • 1902, John Masefield, Sea Fever:
      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.
  14. A toy; a trifle; a plaything.

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from trick (noun)

TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

trick (third-person singular simple present tricks, present participle tricking, simple past and past participle tricked)

  1. (transitive) To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.
    You tried to trick me when you said that house was underpriced.
  2. (heraldry) To draw (as opposed to blazon - to describe in words).
  3. To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.
    • 1624, Henry Wotton, “The Seate, and the Worke”, in The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, OCLC 17479433, I. part, page 38:
      [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.
      An adjective use.
    • 1693, [John Locke], “(please specify the section number)”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], OCLC 1161614482:
      Tricking up their children in fine clothes.
    • 1735, Alexander Pope, Of the Characters of Women
      Trick her off in air.
    • 1825, Thomas Macaulay, An Essay on John Milton
      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.

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from the adjective or verb trick

TranslationsEdit

AdjectiveEdit

trick (comparative tricker, superlative trickest)

  1. Involving trickery or deception.
    trick photography
  2. Able to perform tricks.
    A trick pony
  3. Defective or unreliable.
    a trick knee
  4. (chiefly US, slang) Stylish or cool.
    Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.

DanishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English trick.

PronunciationEdit

IPA(key): [ˈtˢʁɛɡ̊]

NounEdit

trick (singular definite tricket, plural indefinite trickene)

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

SynonymsEdit

Further readingEdit

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