Definition of "trice"

The tent is made of light, close, unbleached duck, […] A window, six inches square, is fitted at the upper end with a flap to trice up or haul down.

1875 August, Clements R[obert] Markham, “Arctic Ice-travels”, in E[dward] L[ivingston] Youmans, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume VII, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], page 479

... the fold of his double chin hung like a bag triced up close under the hinge of his jaw.

1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 3, in Lord Jim

One of the two men landed had shot and wounded the mate, and the other, known as "Doublin Jack," had knocked the second mate down with a handspike. Captain Low put both these men in irons, triced them up in the mizzen rigging, and gave them each four dozen lashes of ratline stuff, which they had well earned.

1911, Arthur H[amilton] Clark, “California Clippers of 1852—The ‘Sovereign of the Seas’”, in The Clipper Ship Era: An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper Ships, Their Owners, Builders, Commanders, and Crews 1843–1869, New York, N.Y., London: G. P. Putnam's Sons […], page 215

This is most ſtrange, that ſhe, who even but now Was your beſt object, the argument of your praiſe, Balme of your age, moſt beſt, moſt deereſt, Should in this trice of time commit a thing So monſtrous, to diſmantell ſo many foulds of fauour, […]

c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, [Act I, scene i]

He saw a Turnkey in a trice Unfetter a troublesome blade;

1834 , Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 85

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May." And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum; Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

1907, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, New York, N.Y.: Barse & Hopkins, publishers, page 53

And in a trice he has clambered onto the kitchen dresser and is reaching for the top shelf.

2013, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 22, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Vic.: The Text Publishing Company, page 220

Perhaps images then, not words? Of terrified young people who in a trice went from dancing to frantic running in a futile attempt to escape the spray of bullets; […]

2023 October 14, Simon Schama, “Let us be, to grieve, rage, weep; say the mourners' kaddish”, in FT Weekend, page 9