cantrip
Americannoun
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Chiefly Scot. a magic spell; trick by sorcery.
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Chiefly British. artful shamming meant to deceive.
noun
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a magic spell
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(often plural) a mischievous trick
adjective
Etymology
Origin of cantrip
1710–20; apparently dissimilated variant of Old English calcatrippe; see caltrop
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.
To fellow brokers downstairs on the floor of the Stock Exchange he had merely whispered the compelling cantrip of the bulls: "I've got a good thing!"
From Time Magazine Archive
Methought I had recover'd of the Becket, That all was planed and bevell'd smooth again, Save from some hateful cantrip of thine own.
From Becket and other plays by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson
Then mystic knots mak great abuse, On young guidman, fond, keen, and crouse, When the best wark-lume i' the house, By cantrip wit, Is instant made no worth a louse, Just at the bit.
From The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together With Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales by James Grant
For by what cantrip it wad ill-beseem a man to judge, she was hingin' frae a single nail an' by a single wursted thread for darnin' hose.
From Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories by Joseph Lewis French
With anxious countenance and attentive ears, they listened to the cantrip effusions of these pretended oracles, which prognosticated the bright or gloomy days of futurity.
From Thaumaturgia by An Oxonian
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.
