trick

Meanings

Noun

• Something designed to fool 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 to a prostitute.
• 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.

Verb

• To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.
• To draw (as opposed to blazon - to describe in words).
• To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.

Adjective

• Involving trickery or deception.
• Able to perform tricks.
• Defective or unreliable.
• Stylish or cool.

Related

Similar words

• illusion, magic trick, sleight of hand
• shift
• con, dupe, fool, gull, have, hoodwink, pull the wool over someone's eyes, rip off
• mod

Origin

• Uncertain.
• Perhaps from Middle English *trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier; French: tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen ("to launch a shot at, play a trick on"), but the Old French verb more likely is derived from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Late Latin tricāre, from Latin tricor ("behave in an evasive manner, search for detours; trifle, delay").
• Alternatively, perhaps from Dutch trek ("a pull, draw, trick"), from trekken, from Middle Dutch trekken, treken, from Old Dutch *trekkan, *trekan, from Proto-Germanic *trakjaną, *trekaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- ("to drag, scrape").
• If the second proposal is correct, the term is 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.