noun
Synonym Usage
See duplicity.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of trickery
Explanation
When tricks of any kind are used to fool or deceive someone, especially for financial gain, that's trickery. If you suspect that a cute kid has scammed you out of twenty dollars, you have every right to accuse him of trickery. Trickery is using pretense or sleight of hand or fast talking to cheat a person out of some amount of money, the way a card sharp or a con man might do. The earliest use of trick was in this negative sense — a mean ruse or cheat. Trickery simply adds the Middle English ery to the end to form a new noun.
Vocabulary lists containing trickery
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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:
As to the trickery itself, the proof is in the pudding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
He appears to have dedicated much of his time there to putting out videos and written posts about demons and their trickery.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2026
A real showboater is someone whose very mention elicits warm, fuzzy memories of flamboyant flicks and trickery.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
Filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski find an enchanting balance between storybook allure and adult trickery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
It was all cold trickery, it was all calculated, it was all enmity.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
But trickeries of some sort existed on all the popular TV quizzes, not just Twenty-One.
From Time Magazine Archive
As thou mightst think, it grew to be their favorite coigne for playing their dragon and princess trickeries.
From A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales by Amélie Rives
You cannot think that I would use any trickeries with you.
From The Watchers A Novel by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
In the trickeries and mimicries of court life Bunsen was no adept, and nothing was easier than to outbid him in the price that is paid for royal favors.
From Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller
Francis, don't you see that we're not the sort of people, either of us, to put up with the deceits, the trickeries, the lies that the other thing means?
From The Duchess of Wrexe Her Decline and Death; A Romantic Commentary by Sir Hugh Walpole
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.
