trick
- 01 B1 Intermediate
n.something you do to fool someone, either as a joke or to be dishonest.
n.an act or scheme intended to deceive or outwit someone, ranging from harmless pranks to fraudulent swindles.
Simple“The children played a trick on their teacher by hiding her glasses.”
In context“The email was a clever trick designed to steal passwords from unsuspecting employees by mimicking a bank's official website.”
- 02 B1 Intermediate
n.a quick or effective way of doing something difficult.
n.a particular technique or knack that facilitates the efficient completion of a task.
Simple“The trick to making good pasta is using plenty of salt in the water.”
In context“Once you learn the trick of balancing the load, the heavy wheelbarrow becomes much easier to manage on uneven ground.”
- 03 B1 Intermediate
n.an entertaining action or a piece of magic that looks impossible.
n.a single illusion or feat of skill performed for entertainment, such as by a magician or an acrobat.
Simple“The magician performed a card trick that left the audience silent with wonder.”
In context“The skateboarder spent all afternoon practicing a new trick on the half-pipe before the competition started.”
- 04 C1 Advanced
n.a person who pays for sex.
n.a customer of a sex worker. Informal and often carries a derogatory or clinical nuance depending on the speaker.
Simple“The police were monitoring the street to identify regular tricks in the area.”
In context“The documentary explored the dangerous lives of women working on the streets and their interactions with various tricks.”
- 05 C2 Proficiency
n.a sailor's turn to work at the wheel of a ship.
n.a specific period of duty at the helm of a vessel, typically lasting two hours.
Simple“It was his turn for a trick at the wheel during the storm.”
In context“After a grueling two-hour trick at the helm in heavy seas, the helmsman was finally relieved by the next watch.”
- 06 B1 Intermediate
v.to make someone believe something that is not true.
v.to deceive or outwit someone through a stratagem or artifice. Transitive; frequently used with the preposition 'into'.
Simple“He tricked me into giving him my phone number by pretending to be a classmate.”
In context“The salesman attempted to trick the elderly couple into signing a contract they hadn't fully read.”
- 07 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.something that is likely to fail or break, or something meant to fool you.
adj.tending to deceive or fail unexpectedly; often used of body parts or mechanical objects.
Simple“Be careful on the stairs because I have a trick knee that sometimes gives out.”
In context“The magician used a trick deck of cards to ensure he always drew the ace of spades.”
Synonyms
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.