trick

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A clever or dishonest act meant to fool or cheat someone.

   They played a mean trick on me.

2. 2
   verb

   To deceive or cheat someone into doing or believing something.

   They tricked the teacher into thinking class was cancelled.

3. 3
   noun

   A skilful or impressive action performed for entertainment.

   Can you do any tricks on that skateboard?

4. 4
   noun

   A clever or quick way of doing something.

   There's a trick to getting this chair to fold up.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Trick entered late Middle English from Old French trichier, “to deceive or cheat,” which also gave rise to treachery. A 16th-century sense meaning “habit” survives in the expression old tricks.

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 tricā…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary