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
I gobbled it in a trice, then tried standing again.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
“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
An’ so yeou hed a wisit frum Si an’ Ed, did yeou; an’ wall, what d’ye think o’ thet, gents, here’s yer birds all triced up, ready tew be transported to jail.
From The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol by Herbert Carter
“It’s the fellah that’s triced up so nately to the port rail, sor,” answered Dolan.
From Dick Leslie's Luck A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure by Harold Piffard
He attacked her gallantly, but she was heavily armed and strongly manned, and, before he could venture to run alongside, had triced up her boarding nettings.
From Notable Voyagers From Columbus to Nordenskiold by William Henry Giles Kingston
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 leopard was quickly triced to a pole, and they were back in Kohima.
From The Three Sapphires by W. A. Fraser
When there are fourteen or more men at a gun, the Port-tacklemen and Side-tacklemen, on lower decks, lead out port-tackle falls and assist in tricing up the port, and, when high enough, belay the fall.
From Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition. by United States. Navy Dept. Bureau of Ordnance
Those used for the hammocks, or tricing up the bags between the beams on the lower-deck.
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
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
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
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
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