turn a trick

Idioms  

1. Engage in sex for pay, as in A young prostitute may turn a dozen tricks in a few hours. This idiom uses trick in the sense of “a sexual act.” [Slang; mid-1900s]

---

Example Sentences

In one of Lopez’s signature pivots, the arch banter transitions to something darkly moving: what Leo wants is not to turn a trick but to take a shower and do laundry.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 2, 2019

Last week Wildman Little did turn a trick.

From Time Magazine Archive

Bluff is a good game, and sometimes it will turn a trick when everything else fails.

From Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi by Devol, George H.

“You done right to come to the mission after me, for I’d ride to the gatepost of hell to turn a trick agin Saul Chadron!”

From The Rustler of Wind River by Ogden, George W. (George Washington)

Now what have I ever done to you that you should turn a trick like this on me?

From Whispering Smith by Wyeth, N. C. (Newell Convers)