Link Centre Dictionary

trick

UK/ˈtɹɪk/ US/ˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪk/ common slang us
noun (5) verb (1)

noun

1.

a cunning or deceitful action or device

  • “he played a trick on me”
  • “he pulled a fast one and got away with it”
Synonyms
2.

a period of work or duty

3.

an attempt to get you to do something foolish or imprudent

  • “that offer was a dirty trick”
4.
5.

verb

1.

deceive somebody

  • “We tricked the teacher into thinking that class would be cancelled next week”
Synonyms

Origin

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 a...

Phrases

  • bag of tricks
  • Barton-Nackman trick
  • bed trick
  • brain trick
  • card trick
  • con trick
  • confidence trick
  • conjuring trick

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.