tryst
/tɹɪst/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.56 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A prearranged meeting or assignation, now especially between lovers to meet at a specific place and time.
noun
A market fair, especially a recurring one held on a schedule, where livestock sales took place.
Example Sentences
- "And Vivien, like the tenderest-hearted maid / That ever bided tryst at village stile, / Made answer, either eyelid wet with tears: […]"
- "A silence supreme and altogether European. Shutters drawn, shops barred. A red glow here and there to mark a tryst."
- "But, for the most part, we shall mark our progress to the dawn of life by the measure of those 40 natural milestones, the trysts that enrich our pilgrimage."
- "If someone trusts you, what is lost if you betray that trust? As Scarlett is tempted to see it, sometimes nothing at all. If her husband remains ignorant of her tryst, then his trust in her will remain intact. ‘No one gets hurt’ runs her reasoning, so why not go ahead?"
- "He said he was jealous, and craved something to ease his care. 'It's but a small thing I ask,' says he, 'but it will make me a happy man, and nothing ever shall come atween us. Tryst wi' me for Beltane's E'en on the Sker sands, at the green link o' the burn where the sands begin, on the ebb o' the tide when midnight is by, but afore cockcrow. For,' said he, 'that was our forbears' tryst for true lovers, and wherefore no for you and me?'"
Etymology
From Middle English tryst, trist, from Old French triste, tristre (“waiting place, appointed station in hunting”), probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse treysta (“to make safe, secure”), from traust (“confidence, trust, security, help, shelter, safe abode”), from Proto-Germanic *traustą (“trust, shelter”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru-, *dreu-, *drū- (“to be firm, be solid”). Doublet of trust, see there for more.