tryst
Americannoun
-
an appointment to meet at a certain time and place, especially one made somewhat secretly by lovers.
- Synonyms:
- rendezvous, assignation
-
an appointed meeting.
- Synonyms:
- rendezvous, assignation
-
an appointed place of meeting.
- Synonyms:
- rendezvous
verb (used with object)
-
trysts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
trysted,
past participle, past
-
trysting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
trysts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
trysted,
past participle, past
-
trysting
present participle
noun
-
an appointment to meet, esp secretly
-
the place of such a meeting or the meeting itself
verb
Usage
What does tryst mean? A tryst is an appointment made to meet at a specific place and time, especially one made in secret by lovers, as in The two employees arranged a tryst for meeting secretly after work. Tryst is also the meeting itself or the place where the meeting will happen, as in Paul snuck out of his room and headed to the tryst. Uncommonly, tryst can be used as a verb to mean to plan a meeting, as in Romeo and Juliet met outside the balcony and secretly trysted. Example: The married businessman denied all accusations that he had had a secret tryst with one of his female business partners.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
trystsimple
-
trystssimple
-
have trystedperfect
-
has trystedperfect
-
am trystingprogressive
-
are trystingprogressive
-
is trystingprogressive
-
have been trystingperfect progressive
-
has been trystingperfect progressive
Past
-
trystedsimple
-
had trystedperfect
-
was trystingprogressive
-
were trystingprogressive
-
had been trystingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tryst
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English triste “appointed hunting-station,” from Old French, from Germanic; compare Gothic trausti “agreement, arrangement,” akin to Middle English trist “confidence,” Old English tryst (unrecorded); see trow, trust
Explanation
A meeting is when people get together for any reason. But when they are sneaking to meet, notably as secret lovers, it's called a tryst. The origin of the word tryst comes from Middle English, and originally referred to a designated hunting station. Today it has come to refer to mainly romantic meetings, often with a secretive feel to it. (That's appropriate — aren’t we all hunting for love?) The word tryst might also suggest a hint of danger or intrigue. Perhaps the most romantic tryst in literature was the meeting between Romeo and Juliet — and just look where they ended up!
Vocabulary lists containing tryst
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Mythology
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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:
I didn’t understand it all until my Xiaomi tryst.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
You hear the influence most prominently on Symmetry, the story of a late-night tryst, whose propulsive rhythm is adorned by Gujurati drums and the sharp metallic twang of the Banzouki.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2025
Not because of shame, but out of a sense of parental responsibility, said Mr. Kugler, who started attending a gay fathers’ support group at a local Methodist church soon after his tryst with the client.
From New York Times ● May 6, 2022
When wildcat ecologist Diana Stasiukynas of the big cat conservation philanthropy Panthera saw videos of the tryst, however, she was concerned.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 24, 2022
There were days on end, of course, when Kit could not manage to keep the tryst.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
Her summer is transfigured by their innocent trysts: “There was the still water of a lake. There were a garden’s scents and its delicious twilight air.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
What begins as a series of secret trysts swells over a decade into fervent, undeniable love.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026
Beheadings, follies, trysts and plague: Can 12 centuries’ worth of monarchs be crammed into 500 pages, about the size of a standard biography?
From New York Times ● May 5, 2023
These primeval trysts gave us traits that persist in some people today, including an ability to survive at high altitude and a vulnerability to infections such as COVID.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 20, 2022
The palace of the King of Elfhame has many secret alcoves and hidden corridors, perfect for trysts or assassins or staying out of the way and being really dull at parties.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the Sunday Times, edited by Bordes' former beau Neil, polled British national editors to find out if they too had trysted with Bordes.
From Time Magazine Archive
But she wad hev nowt wi' me; she trysted wid Angus; so I went back home and broke the click reel of my new loom straight away.
From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Sir Hall Caine
His father trysted it from a cunning artificer in Italy.
From The Black Douglas by Frank Richards
I’m no’ trysted with this man Scougal till the gloaming comes.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
We trysted to meet a few days later at Martigny, and look at the Cascade de Sallanches, to see if it might answer.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 by Various
She keeps on lying to Maureen, keeps on trysting with Dana, keeps on fishing for affection from Neale, keeps on resenting others and cheering herself up with mental put-downs.
From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2019
The great vault of Atlantic City's "world's largest" Convention Hall, national trysting place of bigwig and bruiser, was filled, last week, with fine dust raised by the heels of 10,000 school teachers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Last week the three still hung on, held their trysting with Death once more, but this time another draped chair, was added to the swaths of barren seats closing in on the survivors.
From Time Magazine Archive
He is a Volkswagen Beetle who, befitting a Disney Studios creation, does wheelstands when people insult him or transports them to trysting places as the mood takes him.
From Time Magazine Archive
Apollo, thou shalt have thy trysting: For where a ruined sphinx lay smiling The wood-girl waits thee, white, beguiling.
From The Melody of Earth An Anthology of Garden and Nature Poems From Present-Day Poets by Various
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.
