Definition of "trump"

trump¹

/tɹʌmp/

noun
plural trumps
1. (card games) The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.
  Quotations
  And now her Heart with Pleasure jumps,She scarce remembers what is Trumps.
  1730, Jonathan Swift, “Death And Daphne,”, in Some Verse Pieces
2. (card games) A playing card of that suit.
3. (figuratively) Something that gives one an advantage, especially one held in reserve.
  Quotations
  VVere Iacke Strawe a liue againe,And I in as good poſſibility as euer I was,I would lay a ſurer trumpe,Ere I would loſe ſo faire a tricke.
  1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act IV
4. (colloquial, now rare) An excellent person; a fine fellow, a good egg.
  Quotations
  [W]e permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
  1838, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois”, in The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions‎, archived from the original on 5 February 2013
  All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump; the captain begged his pardon.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley
  Brooke was a trump to telegraph right off.
  1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, pages 19 and 163
  Alfred is a trump, I think you say.
  1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […]
5. An old card game, almost identical to whist; the game of ruff.
  Quotations
  There be many one that breaketh this carde, […] and playeth there with oftentimes at the blinde trompe, wherby they be no winners but great losers
  c. 1529, Hugh Latimer, Sermons on the Card
  Trionfo, […] also a trump at cards, or the play called trump or ruff.
  1598, John Florio, “Trump”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount
6. A card of the major arcana of the tarot.
verb
third-person singular simple present trumps, present participle trumping, simple past and past participle trumped
1. (transitive, card games) To play on (a card of another suit) with a trump.
  Quotations
  He lost his money at whist after dinner, and actually trumped his partner’s highest spade.
  1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 52, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850
2. (intransitive, card games) To play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump.
3. (transitive) To get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.
  Quotations
  to trick or trump mankind
  1629 (first performance), B[en] Jonson, The Nevv Inne. Or, The Light Heart. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Thomas Alchorne, […], published 1631, (please specify the page, or act number in uppercase Roman numerals), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
4. (transitive, dated) To impose unfairly; to palm off.
  Quotations
  Authors have been trumped upon us.
  1699, Charles Leslie, A Short and Easy Method with the Deists
5. (transitive) To supersede.
6. (transitive) To outweigh; be stronger, greater, bigger than or in other way superior to.

trump²

/tɹʌmp/

noun
plural trumps
1. (archaic) A trumpet.
  Quotations
  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 Corinthians 15:52
  Sound, sound the trump of fame,
  1798, Joseph Hopkinson, Hail, Columbia
2. (UK, euphemistic, slang) Flatulence.
3. The noise made by an elephant through its trunk.
verb
third-person singular simple present trumps, present participle trumping, simple past and past participle trumped
1. To blow a trumpet.
2. (intransitive, UK, euphemistic, slang) To flatulate.

trump³

/tɹʌmp/

noun
plural trumps
1. (dated, music) Synonym of Jew's harp.

Definition of "trump"

trump1

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trump2

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trump3

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trump¹

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trump³