trick

noun

1. Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.

   “It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.”

   “He played a trick on his sister as April Fool's Day.”

2. A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.

   “And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.”

3. An entertaining difficult physical action.

   “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.”

4. An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.

   “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.”

5. Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.

   “the tricks of boys”

   “They played a crude trick on the teacher.”

6. (dated)A particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.

   “a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning”

   “He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face.”

   “The trick of that voice I do well remember.”

7. A knot, braid, or plait of hair.

   “I cannot tell , but it stirs me more than all your court curls , or your spangles , or your tricks”

8. A sequence in which each player plays a card and a winning play is determined.

   “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!”

9. (Canada, US, slang)A sex act, chiefly one performed for payment; an act of prostitution.

   “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.”

   “You lied to me, Leon. It was a rough trick.”

   “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.”

10. (slang)A customer or client of a prostitute.

    “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”

    “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.”

11. (slang, vulgar)A term of abuse.
12. (Pennsylvania, Western)A daily period of work, especially in shift-based jobs.

    “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.”

    “Woodside Junction—On 8 hour basis, first trick $60, second trick $60, third trick $50.”

    “The Union contends that Fifer was entitled to promotion to the position of Group Leader on the third trick in the Core Room Department.”

13. A sailor's spell of work at the helm, usually two hours long.

    “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.”

14. (obsolete)A toy; a trifle; a plaything.

    “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, […]”

15. A representation of arms that is drawn as an outline with labels to indicate colors.

    “Heraldic Collections of various Heralds and others, containing Arms blazoned and in trick, grants of arms, pedigrees, etc.”

    “The trick […] might be meant for a lion passant or for one rampant embelif […]”

verb

1. (transitive)To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.

   “You tried to trick me when you said that house was underpriced.”

   “I was once tricked into believing I had left my phone in the locker.”

2. To draw (as contrasted with to blazon, which is to describe in words).

   “The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, / Black as his purpose, did the night resemble / When he lay couched in the ominous horse, / Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd / With heraldry more dismal; head to foot / Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd / With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons […]”

   “They forget that they are in the statutes: […] there they are trick'd, they and their pedigrees.”

3. To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.

   “[T]his Pillar [the "Compounded Order"] is nothing in effect, but a Medlie, or an Amaſſe of all the precedent Ornaments, making a nevv kinde, by ſtealth, and though the moſt richly tricked, yet the pooreſt in this, that he is a borrovver of all his Beautie.”

   “Tricking up their children in fine clothes.”

   “Trick her off in air.”

   “They are simple, but majestic, records of the feelings of the poet; as little tricked out for the public eye as his diary would have been.”

4. To engage in prostitution or casual sex.

   “1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure […] and suddenly it was Maryellin, he & I in the bed. The guy was tall, lean & hard. Absolutely lovely body. For me, it was like my old tricking days.”

   “You trick for other people, you cheat me out of money, and then when you need a favour, you come back to me.”

   “Asked whether one possible way for lesbians to increase sexual satisfaction within a relationship would be to "trick" outside it, Pearlman said that this could be a "terrific turn-on" if done right, but that she generally wouldn't recommend it because of the high risk of jealousy and breakups.”

adj

1. Involving trickery or deception.

   “trick photography”

2. Able to perform tricks.

   “A trick pony”

3. Defective or unreliable.

   “a trick knee”

4. (US, slang)Stylish or cool.

   “Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.”