trice
noun
a very short time; an instant.
trice
1 American
[trahys]
/ traɪs /
noun
trice
2
American
[trahys]
/ traɪs /
verb (used with object)
Nautical.
triced,
tricing
-
to pull or haul with a rope.
-
to haul up and fasten with a rope (usually followed byup ).
-trice
3
American
trice
1
British
/ traɪs /
noun
trice
2
British
/ traɪs /
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of trice1
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English tryse; probably special use of trise (unrecorded) “a pull, tug,” derivative of trisen, “to pull”; see trice 2
Origin of trice2
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English trisen, from Middle Dutch trīsen “to hoist,” derivative of trīse “pulley”
Origin of -trice3
< French or Italian -trice < Latin -trīcem, accusative of -trīx -trix
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.
See Examples For:
On 15 July 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 probe sent back grainy images of Mars, revealing a forbidding surface that destroyed florid Victorian speculation in a trice.
From Nature ● Jan. 7, 2019
We’d hired someone to help us sort through our belongings—keep it, sell it, give it away—Patty could get rid of anything in a trice.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2018
War, as we know, changes everything, and in a trice it had changed my father.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2017
He was maybe three feet from the net, but somehow, in a trice, managed to extend his left arm sideways and tilt his racquet head down toward his thighs.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 30, 2016
"Maggot topping, all slimy and nice! I shall devour it in a trice!"
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
“Nowadays it often seems writing is nothing at all,” Duras recorded in it presciently, years before the internet made everyone a créateur or -trice.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2022
Now, as quickly, the two boat-tenders rowed back to the Drab, and the boats were triced up in a twinkling.
From The Motor Boat Club and The Wireless Or, the Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise by H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
Boarding-nettings she had, too, ready to be triced up in case of need; and altogether she had no occasion to dread any enemy she was at all likely to meet.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847 by Various
The cutter’s foresail had been triced up, and served as a partition.
From The Voyages of the Ranger and Crusader And what befell their Passengers and Crews. by William Henry Giles Kingston
As the boats approached, the deck of the pirate was seen crowded with men, and boarding nettings triced up.
From How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves Updated to 1900 by William Henry Giles Kingston
Got my log line strung up along 'tween decks and the whole blamed wash triced up in everybody's way.
From The Grain Ship by Morgan Robertson
In a moment, cutting the tricing lines of her boarding nettings, they sprang up her side and threw themselves on the deck.
From True Blue by William Henry Giles Kingston
“I’ll rig up a whip from the foreyard and we can let down a hammock for ’em, tricing up one at a time.”
From The Ghost Ship A Mystery of the Sea by Henry Austin
Thorogood reached the 6-inch battery breathless, and found the guns' crews busy tricing up their mess-tables overhead.
From The Long Trick by Bartimeus
Her crew were tricing up the boarding-netting, dragging round the starboard guns, knocking new portholes for them, and making every preparation for a desperate resistance.
From The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
If there are, we will reeve and bend the tricing lines at once, and see all clear for tricing up the nets.”
From A Middy in Command A Tale of the Slave Squadron by Edward S. Hodgson
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