trump

plural trumps

1. card gamesThe suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.

   Diamonds were declared trump(s).

   1 more example

   And now her Heart with Pleasure jumps, She scarce remembers what is Trumps.

   1730, Jonathan Swift, “Death And Daphne,”, in Some Verse Pieces

2. card gamesA playing card of that suit.

   He played an even higher trump.

3. figurativelySomething that gives one an advantage, especially one held in reserve.

   VVere Iacke Strawe a liue againe, And I in as good poſſibility as euer I was, I would lay a ſurer trumpe, Ere I would loſe ſo faire a tricke.

   1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act IV

4. archaiccolloquialAn excellent person; a fine fellow, a good egg.

   Alfred is a trump, I think you say.

   1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   [W]e permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.

   1838, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois”, in The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2013

   All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump; the captain begged his pardon.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   Brooke was a trump to telegraph right off.

   1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, pages 19 and 163

5. An old card game, almost identical to whist; the game of ruff.

   Trionfo,[…]also a trump at cards, or the play called trump or ruff.

   1598, John Florio, “Trump”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount, →OCLC

   1 more example

   There be many one that breaketh this carde,[…]and playeth there with oftentimes at the blinde trompe, wherby they be no winners but great losers

   c. 1529, Hugh Latimer, Sermons on the Card

6. A card of the major arcana of the tarot.

present singular third person trumps · participle present trumping · participle past trumped · past trumped

1. transitivecard gamesTo play on (a card of another suit) with a trump.

   He knew the hand was lost when his ace was trumped.

   1 more example

   He lost his money at whist after dinner, and actually trumped his partner’s highest spade.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 52, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

2. intransitivecard gamesTo play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump.
3. transitiveTo get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.

   to trick or trump mankind

   , Act 1, Scene 3

   1 more example

   Wren, who had hoped to make his name with his discovery, immediately put De Corpore aside, hoping that in silence his failure would disappear. He was forced to think again about his future and resolved to seek new territory within the New Philosophy which he could call his own, rather than face the embarrassment of being trumped for a second time.

   2011, Leo Hollis, The Phoenix

   Synonyms: outsmart

4. datedtransitiveTo impose unfairly; to palm off.

   Authors have been trumped upon us.

   1699, Charles Leslie, A Short and Easy Method with the Deists

5. transitiveTo supersede.

   In this election, it would seem issues of national security trumped economic issues.

   1 more example

   The phrase was, and remains, a double-edged sword: a testament to the hard-working and hard-living citizens of the Crescent City and an indicator of the “ah, whatever” shrug hanging over its corrupt politics, its ramshackle infrastructure and its belief that partying trumps all.

   2015 August 12, Todd Leopold, “Return to the ‘City That Care Forgot’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2022

6. transitiveTo outweigh; be stronger, greater, bigger than or in other way superior to.

plural trumps

1. archaicA trumpet.

   Sound, sound the trump of fame,

   1798, Joseph Hopkinson, Hail, Columbia

   1 more example

   In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:52

2. UKcolloquialA fart.
3. The noise made by an elephant through its trunk.

present singular third person trumps · participle present trumping · participle past trumped · past trumped

1. To blow a trumpet.
2. UKcolloquialintransitiveTo fart.

   Who trumped?

   1 more example

   And without warning me, as he lay there, he suddenly trumped next to me in bed.

plural trumps

1. datedentertainmentSynonym of Jew's harp.

   Synonyms: Jew's harp

plural Trumps

1. countableuncountableA surname.

   1 more example

   The house at which he was to lodge had been selected with considerable judgment. It was kept by a tidy old widow known as Mrs. Trump; but those who knew any thing of Hamworth affairs were well aware that Mrs. Trump had been left without a shilling, and could not have taken that snug little house in Paradise Row and furnished it completely out of her own means.

   1861, Anthony Trollope, chapter XXXII, in Orley Farm

   1. countableuncountableA surname from English.
   2. countableuncountableA surname from German.
   3. countableuncountableDonald Trump (b. 1946), a businessman, television personality, and current president of the United States of America (2017–2021, 2025–present).

      During their interview, Shahidi asked Clinton about the uncomfortable second presidential debate, during which Trump stalked her around the stage.

      2017 December 3, Kayleigh Roberts, “Yara Shahidi Just Asked Hillary Clinton About That Very Uncomfortable Trump Debate”, in Harper's BAZAAR, archived from the original on 18 Aug 2019

      Synonyms: DJT, The Donald, Cheeto, Dementia Don, Diaper Don, Dirty Donald, Donald Duck, Donald Trumpet

2. countableuncountableA ghost town in Park County, Colorado, United States.
3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States.