tryst

From Middle English tryst, trist, from Old French tristre (“waiting place, appointed station in hunting”), probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse treysta (“to make safe, secure”), from traust (“confidence, trust, security, help, shelter, safe abode”), from Proto-Germanic *traustą (“trust, shelter”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru-, *dreu-, *drū- (“to be firm, be solid”). Doublet of trust (which see).

• IPA^(key): /tɹɪst/, /tɹaɪst/

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• Rhymes: -ɪst, -aɪst

tryst (plural trysts)

1. A prearranged meeting or assignation, now especially between lovers to meet at a specific place and time.
   • Tennyson

     The tenderest-hearted maid / That ever bided tryst at village stile.

   • 2004, Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life, page 11:

     But, for the most part, we shall mark our progress to the dawn of life by the measure of those 40 natural milestones, the trysts that enrich our pilgrimage.

   • 2005, Julian Baggini, The Pig that Wants to be Eaten: And 99 other thought experiments, №91: “No one gets hurt”, page 271 (Granta; →ISBN, 9781862078550)

     If someone trusts you, what is lost if you betray that trust? As Scarlett is tempted to see it, sometimes nothing at all. If her husband remains ignorant of her tryst, then his trust in her will remain intact. ‘No one gets hurt’ runs her reasoning, so why not go ahead?

2. (obsolete) A mutual agreement, a covenant.

tryst (third-person singular simple present trysts, present participle trysting, simple past and past participle trysted)

1. (intransitive) To make a tryst; to agree to meet at a place.
2. (transitive) To arrange or appoint (a meeting time etc.).
3. (intransitive) To keep a tryst, to meet at an agreed place and time.

• RTTYs