trice

See also: -trice

English

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -aɪs

Etymology 1

From Middle English tryse, tryys, probably of North Germanic origin; compare Swedish trissa (“a pulley, truckle”), Norwegian triss (“a pulley”), Danish tridse (“pulley”), Low German trissel (“whirling, dizziness”). Perhaps ultimately related to Old English tryndel (“wheel, roller”). More at trindle, trend.

Noun

trice (plural trices)

  1. A roller; windlass.

Etymology 2

From Middle English tryse, in the phrase at a tryse (“with a single, quick motion”, literally “with a pull, jerk”), later also in the phrases at a trice, with a trice, on a trice, in a trice; ultimately from the verb. See below.

Noun

trice (plural trices)

  1. A very short time; an instant; a moment; – now used only in the phrase in a trice.
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Crown Publishers, Inc. (1975), page 975,
      This is most strange, that she, who even but now was your best object...most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle so many folds of favor.
    • 1907, Robert W. Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses:
      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."
    • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company. chapter 22. p. 220.
      And in a trice he has clambered onto the kitchen dresser and is reaching for the top shelf.
Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English trisen, trycen, from Middle Dutch trisen (“to hoist”) or Middle Low German trissen (“to trice the spritsail”). Related to Dutch trijsen, Low German trissen, tryssen, drisen, drysen (“to wind up, trice”), German trissen, Danish tridse (“to haul with a pulley”).

Alternative forms

  • trise (obsolete)

Verb

trice (third-person singular simple present trices, present participle tricing, simple past and past participle triced)

  1. To pull; to haul; to drag; to pull out or away.
    • 1875, Clements R. Markham in Popular Science Monthly Volume 7 August 1875, Arctic Ice-Travels
      A window, six inches square, is fitted at the upper end with a flap to trice up or haul down.
    • 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales - The Monk's Tale
      Out of his seat I will him trice.
  2. (nautical) To haul and tie up by means of a rope.
    • 1911, Arthur Hamilton Clark, The Clipper Ship Era
      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.
Translations

Anagrams

Scottish Gaelic

Adjective

trice

  1. Comparative form of tric.

Adverb

trice

  1. Comparative form of tric.
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