trick

Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.

It was just a trick to say that the house was underpriced.

He played a trick on his sister as April Fool's Day.

A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.

And for my next trick, I will pull a wombat out of a duffel bag.

An entertaining difficult physical action.

That's a nice skateboard, but can you do any tricks on it?

Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.

An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.

tricks of the trade; what's the trick of getting this chair to fold up?

Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.

the tricks of boys

They played a crude trick on the teacher.

To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.

You tried to trick me when you said that house was underpriced.

I was once tricked into believing I had left my phone in the locker.

To draw (as contrasted with to blazon, which is to describe in words).

The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, / Black as his purpose, did the night resemble / When he lay couched in the ominous horse, / Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd / With heraldry more dismal; head to foot / Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd / With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons […]

They forget that they are in the statutes: […] there they are trick'd, they and their pedigrees.

To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.

[T]his Pillar [the "Compounded Order"] is nothing in effect, but a Medlie, or an Amaſſe of all the precedent Ornaments, making a nevv kinde, by ſtealth, and though the moſt richly tricked, yet the pooreſt in this, that he is a borrovver of all his Beautie.

Tricking up their children in fine clothes.

To engage in prostitution or casual sex.

1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure […] and suddenly it was Maryellin, he & I in the bed. The guy was tall, lean & hard. Absolutely lovely body. For me, it was like my old tricking days.

You trick for other people, you cheat me out of money, and then when you need a favour, you come back to me.

Involving trickery or deception.

trick photography

Able to perform tricks.

A trick pony

Defective or unreliable.

a trick knee

Stylish or cool.

Wow, your new sportscar is so trick.