trick
Plural: tricks
Noun
- a cunning or deceitful action or device
- "he played a trick on me"
- a period of work or duty
- an attempt to get you to do something foolish or imprudent
- "that offer was a dirty trick"
- a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement
- an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
- a prostitute's customer
- (card games) in a single round, the sequence of cards played by all the players; the high card is the winner
- Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
- A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.
- An entertaining difficult physical action.
- An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.
- Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.
- A particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.
- A knot, braid, or plait of hair.
- A sequence in which each player plays a card and a winning play is determined.
- A sex act, chiefly one performed for payment; an act of prostitution.
- A customer or client of a prostitute.
- A term of abuse.
- A daily period of work, especially in shift-based jobs.
- A sailor's spell of work at the helm, usually two hours long.
- A toy; a trifle; a plaything.
- A representation of arms that is drawn as an outline with labels to indicate colors.
Verb
Verb Forms: tricked, tricking, tricks
- To deceive or outsmart someone, often playfully.
- deceive somebody
- "We tricked the teacher into thinking that class would be cancelled next week"
- To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.
- To draw (as contrasted with to blazon, which is to describe in words).
- To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.
- To engage in prostitution or casual sex.
Adj
- Involving trickery or deception.
- Able to perform tricks.
- Defective or unreliable.
- Stylish or cool.
Examples
- a trick knee
- a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning
- A trick pony
- And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.
- As the businessman rounded the corner, she thought, "Here comes another trick."
- He played a trick on his sister as April Fool's Day.
- He tried to "TRICK" his opponent into thinking he had no vowels, but it didn’t work.
- I was able to take the second trick with the queen of hearts.
- I was once tricked into believing I had left my phone in the locker.
- It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.
- That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?
- the tricks of boys
- They played a crude trick on the teacher.
- trick photography
- tricks of the trade; what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?
- turn a trick
- turn tricks
- Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.
- You tried to trick me when you said that house was underpriced.
Origin / 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.
Synonyms
antic, caper, conjuration, conjuring trick, deception, fast one, flim-flam, fob, fox, illusion, john, joke, legerdemain, magic, magic trick, play a joke on, play a trick on, play tricks, prank, pull a fast one on, put-on, thaumaturgy, whoremaster, whoremonger, Jane, all-nighter, artifice, con, curb crawler, dupe, fare, fool, gambit, gonk, gull, have, hoodwink, jane, jockey, kerb crawler, mod, monger, muttonmonger, ploy, pull the wool over someone's eyes, punter, rip off, rip-off, score, shift, short-timer, sleight of hand, steamer, trick, wapping cove
Scrabble Score: 11
trick: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordtrick: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
trick: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary