trice
/tɹaɪs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.40 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To drag or haul, especially with a rope; specifically (nautical) to haul or hoist and tie up by means of a rope.
Transitive verb
noun
Now only in the phrase in a trice: a very short time; the blink of an eye, an instant, a moment.
noun
A pulley, a windlass (“form of winch for lifting heavy weights, comprising a cable or rope wound around a cylinder”).
Obsolete
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "The tent is made of light, close, unbleached duck, […] A window, six inches square, is fitted at the upper end with a flap to trice up or haul down."
- "... the fold of his double chin hung like a bag triced up close under the hinge of his jaw."
- "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."
- "Miſtruſtfully he truſteth, and he dreadingly did dare, / And fortie paſſions in a trice in him conſort and ſquare."
- "This is most ſtrange, that ſhe, who even but now / Was your beſt object, the argument of your praiſe, / Balme of your age, moſt beſt, moſt deereſt, / Should in this trice of time commit a thing / So monſtrous, to diſmantell ſo many foulds of fauour, […]"
- "He saw a Turnkey in a trice / Unfetter a troublesome blade;"
Etymology
From Middle English trīcen, trice, trise (“to pull or push; to snatch away; to steal”), from Middle Dutch trīsen (“to hoist”) (modern Dutch trijsen) or Middle Low German trissen (“to trice the spritsail”); further etymology uncertain. The word is cognate with Danish trisse, tridse (“to haul with a pulley”), Low German trissen, tryssen, drisen, drysen (“to wind up, trice”), German trissen, triezen (“to annoy or torment”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: trīcen, trissen, trīce, trīse, trīsse