trice
noun
a very short time; an instant.
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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
In a trice she can shift registers, though, and her candor and keenness of eye translate surprisingly well to tenderness.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2018
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
A marvel, really, the ease with which Dick negotiated changes of mood; in a trice, all trace of meanness, of sullen bravura, had evaporated.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
“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
"That thundering cockroach-legged thief, that was copper-fastened with gold lace and brass buttons chock up to his ears, with a thundering great broadsword triced up to his larboard quarter and slung with brass chains."
From An Old Sailor's Yarns by N. (Nathaniel) Ames
Lines extended from the jib-boom end around the ship, triced up to the lower yard-arms, for drying scrubbed hammocks.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
Will my dead wife's family be less bereaved because of two kegs of peef and three tins of biscuit, or Rosalie's family less disgraced because her uncle was triced through the streets like a big?
From Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas by Lloyd Osbourne
The other bands pass downward between the dog's legs and, triced up on each side, are fastened permanently to the back-band, where there is also attached a drag-thong or pulling-trace about two feet long.
From True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World by Adolphus W. Greely
A sail triced up was filled with water to serve as a bath.
From Owen Hartley; or, Ups and Downs A Tale of Land and Sea by William Henry Giles Kingston
“Good!” said I. “Then let them be brought on deck at once, and see that all is ready for tricing them up, should those boats succeed in getting dangerously near to us.”
From A Middy in Command A Tale of the Slave Squadron by Edward S. Hodgson
Everywhere they can be distinguished by their dress, by their enormous oiled sunshades, and by their habit of tricing their loads high up to the carrying pole.
From An Australian in China Being the Narrative of a Quiet Journey Across China to Burma by George Ernest Morrison
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
Moran dragged the hammock back into the cabin, and, returning upon deck, helped Wilbur to cut away the last tricing tackle.
From Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris
Lanyards, chain pendents, runners and tackles for tricing up, and bars and keys for securing lower deck ports In place.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
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