trick – English noun declension

English noun forms of trick

Noun: trick
Singulartrick
Pluraltricks

Sample Sentences

  • It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.
  • He played a trick on his sister as April Fool's Day.
  • And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.
  • That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?
  • Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space. [1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters, page 158:]
  • tricks of the trade; what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?
  • 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. [2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:]
  • the tricks of boys
  • They played a crude trick on the teacher.
  • a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning
  • He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face. [c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:]
  • The trick of that voice I do well remember. [c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:]
  • I cannot tell , but it stirs me more than all your court curls , or your spangles , or your tricks [1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):]
  • I was able to take the second trick with the queen of hearts.
  • And now (as oft in some distemper'd state) / On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate! [1712, Alexander Pope, “Canto III”, in The Rape of the Lock, lines 93–94; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 94:]
  • turn a trick
  • turn tricks
  • I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet
  • Down where Lexington cross 47th Street.
  • Oh, she's a big girl, she's standing six-foot three,
  • Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city. [1975, “Island Girl”, in Bernie Taupin (lyrics), Rock of the Westies, performed by Elton John:]
  • You lied to me, Leon. It was a rough trick. [1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Julian Kaye (Richard Gere):]
  • Perhaps the most important thing a prostitute learns is how to "manage" the client; how to con him into spending more money than he planned. Learning how to perform tricks takes only a few minutes. Learning how to "hustle" the client takes longer. [1988, John H. Lindquist, Misdemeanor Crime: Trivial Criminal Pursuit, page 43:]
  • "How did you get into all this?" "I started doing tricks when I was young and I don't mean the magic circle. I learned about sex from an early age. There was nothing else to do in Pitsea except heavy petting and getting F grades at school." [2010, Richard Gill, Paloma Azul, page 139:]
  • When he later asked her to strip and perform tricks for him, she refused, and he chased her away. She had similar experiences with other men until she eventually fell into prostitution: […] [2019, Julie S. Draskoczy, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag:]
  • As the businessman rounded the corner, she thought, "Here comes another trick."
  • Across 110th street / Woman trying to catch a trick on the street, ooh baby / Across 110th Street / You can find it all in the street [1972, Bobby Womack, “Across 110th Street”, in Across 110th Street:]
  • Ten minutes after she got down she broke luck. A white trick in a thirty-seven Buick picked her up. I timed her. She had racehorse speed. [2011, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, page 99:]
  • 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. [1885, Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, The Conductor and Brakeman, page 496:]
  • Woodside Junction—On 8 hour basis, first trick $60, second trick $60, third trick $50. [1899, New York (State), Bureau of Statistics, Deptartment of Labor, Annual Report]
  • The Union contends that Fifer was entitled to promotion to the position of Group Leader on the third trick in the Core Room Department. [1949, Labor arbitration reports, page 738:]
  • 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. [1902, John Masefield, Sea Fever:]
  • The vviles and guiles that vvomen vvorke, / Diſſembled vvith an outvvard ſhevv: / The tricks and toyes that in them lurke, / The Cock that treads thẽ [them] ſhall not knovv, […] [1599, [anonymous], “When as Thine Eye hath Chose the Dame”, in The Passionate Pilgrime. […], 2nd edition, London: […] [Thomas Judson] for W[illiam] Iaggard, and are to be sold by W[illiam] Leake, […], →OCLC:]
  • Heraldic Collections of various Heralds and others, containing Arms blazoned and in trick, grants of arms, pedigrees, etc. [1892, George Gatfield, Guide to Printed Books and Manuscripts Relating to English and Foreign Heraldry, page 12:]
  • The trick […] might be meant for a lion passant or for one rampant embelif […] [2009, Thomas Daniel Tremlett, Hugh Stanford London, Rolls of Arms, Henry III., page 132:]

Etymology

1. 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”).
2. 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.
3. Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger. See: Middle English Nouns 'trikke', Latin Nouns 'tricor', Romanian Nouns 'truc'.

Verbs referencing "trick"

English Nouns treacher, German Nouns Trick, Icelandic Nouns trikk, Finnish Nouns trikki, Norwegian Bokmål Nouns triks, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns triks.