trump

See also: Trump

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tɹʌmp/
  • (US) IPA(key): /t͡ʃɹʌmp/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌmp
  • Homophone: Trump

Etymology 1

Possibly from French triomphe (“triumph”) or Old French triumphe.

Noun

trump (plural trumps)

  1. (card games) The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.
    Diamonds were declared trump(s).
  2. (card games) A playing card of that suit.
    He played an even higher trump.
  3. (figuratively) Something that gives one an advantage, especially one held in reserve.
  4. (colloquial, now rare) An excellent person; a fine fellow, a good egg.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 13
      All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump; the captain begged his pardon.
    • 1869 Louisa May Alcott, Little Women pg 19 and 163
      Meg hugged her on the spot, Jo pronounced her a 'trump'
      Brooke was a trump to telegraph right off.
      Well, my love, I consider him a trump, in the fullest sense of that expressive word, but I do wish he was a little younger and a good deal richer.”
    • 1933 Little Women film (Jo uses the term twice)
    • Thackeray
      Alfred is a trump, I think you say.
  5. An old card game, almost identical to whist; the game of ruff.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Decker to this entry?)
  6. A card of the major arcana of the tarot.
Usage notes

For the top-ranking suit as a whole, American usage favors the singular trump and British usage the plural trumps.

Translations

Verb

trump (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.
    He knew the hand was lost when his ace was trumped.
  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.
    • Ben Jonson
      to trick or trump mankind
  4. (transitive, dated) To impose unfairly; to palm off.
    • C. Leslie
      Authors have been trumped upon us.
  5. (transitive) To supersede.
    In this election, it would seem issues of national security trumped economic issues.
Synonyms
  • (to play a trump card on another suit): ruff
  • (to get the better of a competitor): outsmart
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English trompe (“trumpet”) from Old French trompe (“horn, trump, trumpet”), from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba (“trumpet”). Akin to Old High German trumpa, trumba (“horn, trumpet”), Middle Dutch tromme (“drum”), Middle Low German trumme (“drum”). More at trumpet, drum.

Noun

trump (plural trumps)

  1. (archaic) A trumpet.
    • 1611, King James Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:52:
      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
    • 1798, Joseph Hopkinson, “Hail, Columbia”:
      Sound, sound the trump of fame,
  2. (slang, Britain, childish, vulgar) Flatulence.
  3. The noise made by an elephant through its trunk.

Verb

trump (third-person singular simple present trumps, present participle trumping, simple past and past participle trumped)

  1. To blow a trumpet.
  2. (intransitive, slang, Britain, childish, vulgar) To flatulate.
    And without warning me, as he lay there, he suddenly trumped next to me in bed.

Etymology 3

Shortening of Jew's-trump, which may be from French jeu-trump, jeu tromp, jeu trompe (a trump, or toy, to play with).

Noun

trump (plural trumps)

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

Further reading

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