Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An act or procedure intended to achieve an end by deceptive or fraudulent means. synonym: wile.
  • noun A mischievous action; a prank.
  • noun A stupid, disgraceful, or childish act.
  • noun A peculiar trait or characteristic; a mannerism.
  • noun A peculiar event with unexpected, often deceptive results.
  • noun A deceptive or illusive appearance; an illusion.
  • noun A special skill; a knack.
  • noun A convention or specialized skill peculiar to a particular field of activity.
  • noun A feat of magic or legerdemain.
  • noun A difficult, dexterous, or clever act designed to amuse.
  • noun All the cards played in a single round, one from each player.
  • noun One such round.
  • noun A period or turn of duty, as at the helm of a ship.
  • noun Slang A prison term.
  • noun An act of prostitution.
  • noun A prostitute's customer.
  • noun A session carried out by a prostitute with a client.
  • noun Slang A robbery or theft.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To cheat or deceive or to practice trickery or deception.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or involving tricks.
  • adjective Capable of performing tricks.
  • adjective Designed or made for doing a trick or tricks.
  • adjective Weak, defective, or liable to fail.
  • idiom (do/turn) To bring about the desired result.
  • idiom (how's tricks) Used to make a friendly inquiry about a person or that person's affairs.
  • idiom (not miss a trick) To be extremely alert.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A crafty or fraudulent device; a deceitful expedient; an artifice; a stratagem.
  • noun A feat or an exhibition of skill or dexterity, as in juggling or sleight of hand.
  • noun A roguish or mischievous performance; a prank; a practical joke; a hoax.
  • noun A foolish, vicious, or disgraceful act: with disparaging or contemptuous force.
  • noun A peculiar art; skill; adroitness; knack.
  • noun A peculiar trait, manner, habit, or practice; a characteristic; a peculiarity; a mannerism.
  • noun A trace; a suggestion; a reminder.
  • noun Something pretended or unreal; a semblance; an illusion.
  • noun Any small article; a toy; a knickknack; a trifle; a trap; a mere nothing: sometimes applied to a child.
  • noun In card-playing, the cards collectively which are played in one round.
  • noun Nautical, a spell: a turn; the time allotted to a man to stand at the helm, generally two hours.
  • noun A watch. Tuft's Glossary of Thieves' Jargon (1798).
  • noun Synonyms Manœuver, Stratagem, etc. (see artifice), fraud, imposition, imposture, deception, fetch.
  • To deceive by trickery; cozen; cheat.
  • To bring, render, or induce by trickery; beguile; inveigle; cajole.
  • To use trickery, deception, or imposture.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English trik, from Old North French trique, from trikier, to deceive, probably from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Latin trīcārī, to play tricks, from trīcae, tricks.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Either from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier; French: tricher), from Middle High German trechen ("to launch a shot at, play a trick on"); Or 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 *trakjanan, *trikanan (“to drag, scrape, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- (“to drag, scrape”). Cognate with Low German trekken, Middle High German trecken, trechen, Danish trække, and Old Frisian trekka. Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word trick.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.