trick

Uncertain.

• Perhaps from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier; French: tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen (“to launch a shot at, play a trick on”), but the Old French verb more likely is derived from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Late Latin tricāre, from Latin trīcor, trīcārī (“behave in an evasive manner, search for detours; trifle, delay”).
• Alternatively, perhaps from Dutch trek (“a pull, draw, trick”), from trekken (“to draw”), from Middle Dutch trekken, trēken (“to pull, place, put, move”), from Old Dutch *trekkan, *trekan (“to move, drag”), from Proto-Germanic *trakjaną, *trekaną (“to drag, scrape, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- (“to drag, scrape”).

If the second theory 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.

• enPR: trĭk, IPA^(key): /tɹɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪk

trick (comparative tricker, superlative trickest)

1. (slang) Stylish or cool.

   Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.

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

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Prior to this entry?)

6. (dated) A particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.

   a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, King John Act I, scene I

     He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face.

   • 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear act IV, scene VI:

     The trick of that voice I do well remember.

7. A knot, braid, or plait of hair.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ben Jonson to this entry?)

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.

   • Alexander Pope

     On one nice trick depends the general fate.

9. (slang) An act of prostitution. (Generally used with turn.)

   At the worst point, she was turning ten tricks a day.

10. (slang) A customer to a prostitute.

    As the businessman rounded the corner, she thought, "Here comes another trick."

11. 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.

12. (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.

13. A toy; a trifle; a plaything.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• (something designed to fool): artifice, con, gambit, ploy, rip-off, See also Thesaurus:deception
• (magic trick): illusion, magic trick, sleight of hand
• (customer to a prostitute): john, see also Thesaurus:prostitute's client
• (entertaining difficult physical action):
• (daily period of work): shift

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).
   • 1600, Hamlet, Act 2, by Shakespeare

     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 […]

   • Ben Jonson

     They forget that they are in the statutes: […] there they are tricked, they and their pedigrees.

3. To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.
   • Alexander Pope

     Trick her off in air.

   • John Locke

     Tricking up their children in fine clothes.

   • Macaulay

     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.

• (to fool): con, dupe, fool, gull, have, hoodwink, pull the wool over someone's eyes, rip off
• (to trick out): mod
• See also Thesaurus:deceive