cantrip
Americannoun
-
Chiefly Scot. a magic spell; trick by sorcery.
-
Chiefly British. artful shamming meant to deceive.
noun
-
a magic spell
-
(often plural) a mischievous trick
adjective
Etymology
Origin of cantrip
1710–20; apparently dissimilated variant of Old English calcatrippe; see caltrop
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To fellow brokers downstairs on the floor of the Stock Exchange he had merely whispered the compelling cantrip of the bulls: "I've got a good thing!"
From Time Magazine Archive
For—by what cantrip it wad ill beseem a man to judge—she was hingin' frae a single nail an' by a single wursted thread for darnin' hose.
From Stories by English Authors: Scotland (Selected by Scribners) by Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
As Waverley passed him, he pulled off his hat respectfully, and approaching his stirrup, bade him 'Tak heed the auld Whig deevil played him nae cantrip.'
From Waverley: or, 'Tis sixty years since by Scott, Walter, Sir
Methought I had recover'd of the Becket, That all was planed and bevell'd smooth again, Save from some hateful cantrip of thine own.
From Becket and other plays by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
By some "cantrip slight," it had no doubt brought her there to be ready in case of accidents, and it now left her to be caught in its stead.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 11 by Wilson, John Mackay
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
