trick.
Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
Meaning & usage
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.
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.
An entertaining difficult physical action.
That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?
An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.
tricks of the trade; what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?
Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.
the tricks of boys
They played a crude trick on the teacher.
A particular habit or manner; a peculiarity; a trait.
a trick of drumming with the fingers; a trick of frowning
A knot, braid, or plait of hair.
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.
A sex act, chiefly one performed for payment; an act of prostitution.
turn a trick
turn tricks
A customer or client of a prostitute.
As the businessman rounded the corner, she thought, "Here comes another trick."
A term of abuse.
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.
A representation of arms that is drawn as an outline with labels to indicate colors.
Where this word comes from
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 and other Romance languages. Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.
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.
To draw (as contrasted with to blazon, which is to describe in words).
To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.
To engage in prostitution or casual sex.
Where this word comes from
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 and other Romance languages. Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.
Involving trickery or deception.
trick photography
Able to perform tricks.
A trick pony
Defective or unreliable.
a trick knee
Stylish or cool.
Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.
Where this word comes from
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 and other Romance languages. Compare track, treachery, trig, and trigger.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.