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)
verb (used without object)
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
What made Mumbai's tryst with Art Deco particularly interesting was how the city embraced its hallmarks in a truly all-encompassing manner.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2025
So the non-holographic Brahms was quite creeped out after she found out about her digital counterpart’s tryst with this engineer she didn’t know.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
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
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
These shifting viewpoints leave several crucial matters, from trysts to betrayals, in a did-they-or-didn’t-they limbo.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 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
Not guested in the house, but trysted in the morning, he goes there, and seeing preparations in the street for a funeral, asks of some one, being only half alarmed, "Qui est mort?"
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George
"Not a man in Scotland could have trysted me at an hour when all my folk were in their rooms and maybe sleeping."
From A Song of a Single Note A Love Story by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
Christine, surely I hae trysted you this very hour.
From Christine A Fife Fisher Girl by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
O Alison Gross, that lives in yon tower, The ugliest witch in the north countrie, Has trysted me ae day up till her bower, And mony fair speech she made to me.
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) 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
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
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
Scathingly they view it only as a trysting place for shopgirls and their beaux, a shelter for nurse-girls and babies on rainy days, a "point of interest" for out-of-towners.
From Time Magazine Archive
So when the knight—yet heavy and wrathful—came to the accustomed trysting place to speak a little to the maiden, each said to the other what was in the mind.
From Aucassin & Nicolette And Other Mediaeval Romances and Legends by Mason, Eugene
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.
