Definition of "trick"

Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.

1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters, page 158

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.

2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

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

c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

The trick of that voice I do well remember.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene vi]

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

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

And now (as oft in some distemper'd state) / On one nice trick depends the gen'ral fate!

1712, Alexander Pope, “Canto III”, in The Rape of the Lock, lines 93–94; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 94

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.

1988, John H. Lindquist, Misdemeanor Crime: Trivial Criminal Pursuit, page 43

"How did you get into all this?" "I started doing tricks when I was young and I don't mean the magic circle. I learned about sex from an early age. There was nothing else to do in Pitsea except heavy petting and getting F grades at school."

2010, Richard Gill, Paloma Azul, page 139

When he later asked her to strip and perform tricks for him, she refused, and he chased her away. She had similar experiences with other men until she eventually fell into prostitution: […]

2019, Julie S. Draskoczy, Belomor: Criminality and Creativity in Stalin’s Gulag

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.

2011, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, page 99

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.

1885, Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, The Conductor and Brakeman, page 496

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

1899, New York (State), Bureau of Statistics, Deptartment of Labor, Annual Report

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

1949, Labor arbitration reports, page 738

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.

1902, John Masefield, Sea Fever

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, […]

1599, [anonymous], “When as Thine Eye hath Chose the Dame”, in The Passionate Pilgrime. […], 2nd edition, London: […] [Thomas Judson] for W[illiam] Iaggard, and are to be sold by W[illiam] Leake, […]

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

1892, George Gatfield, Guide to Printed Books and Manuscripts Relating to English and Foreign Heraldry, page 12

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

2009, Thomas Daniel Tremlett, ‎Hugh Stanford London, Rolls of Arms, Henry III. (page 132)

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 […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]

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

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, Act I

[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.An adjective use.

1624, Henry Wotton, “The Seate, and the Worke”, in The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, I. part, page 38

Tricking up their children in fine clothes.

1693, [John Locke], “(please specify the section number)”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […]

Trick her off in air.

1735, Alexander Pope, Of the Characters of Women

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.

1825, Thomas Macaulay, An Essay on John Milton

[…] 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.

1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

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.

1985 April 20, Betsy Duren, “Women's Studies Conference: Sex and Culture”, in Gay Community News, page 7