trice

present singular third person trices · participle present tricing · participle past triced · past triced · alternative trise

1. obsoletetransitiveTo pull, to pull out or away, to pull sharply.

   The tent is made of light, close, unbleached duck, […] A window, six inches square, is fitted at the upper end with a flap to trice up or haul down.

   1875 August, Clements R[obert] Markham, “Arctic Ice-travels”, in E[dward] L[ivingston] Youmans, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume VII, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 479

2. transitiveTo drag or haul, especially with a rope; specifically (nautical) to haul or hoist and tie up by means of a rope.

   ... the fold of his double chin hung like a bag triced up close under the hinge of his jaw.

   1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 3, in Lord Jim

   1 more example

   One of the two men landed had shot and wounded the mate, and the other, known as "Doublin Jack," had knocked the second mate down with a handspike. Captain Low put both these men in irons, triced them up in the mizzen rigging, and gave them each four dozen lashes of ratline stuff, which they had well earned.

   1911, Arthur H[amilton] Clark, “California Clippers of 1852—The ‘Sovereign of the Seas’”, in The Clipper Ship Era: An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper Ships, Their Owners, Builders, Commanders, and Crews 1843–1869, New York, N.Y.; London: G. P. Putnam's Sons […], →OCLC, page 215

plural trices

1. Now only in the phrase in a trice: a very short time; the blink of an eye, an instant, a moment.

   He saw a Turnkey in a trice / Unfetter a troublesome blade;

   1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 85

   5 more examples

   Miſtruſtfully he truſteth, and he dreadingly did dare, / And fortie paſſions in a trice in him conſort and ſquare.

   1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XXXIII.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 162

   This is most ſtrange, that ſhe, who even but now / Was your beſt object, the argument of your praiſe, / Balme of your age, moſt beſt, moſt deereſt, / Should in this trice of time commit a thing / So monſtrous, to diſmantell ſo many foulds of fauour, […]

   c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; / It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May." / And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum; / Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

   1907, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, New York, N.Y.: Barse & Hopkins, publishers, →OCLC, page 53

   And in a trice he has clambered onto the kitchen dresser and is reaching for the top shelf.

   2013, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 22, in The Childhood of Jesus, Melbourne, Vic.: The Text Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 220

   Perhaps images then, not words? Of terrified young people who in a trice went from dancing to frantic running in a futile attempt to escape the spray of bullets; […]

   2023 October 14, Simon Schama, “Let us be, to grieve, rage, weep; say the mourners’ kaddish”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9

   Synonyms: instant, jiffy, bat of an eye, bit, blink of an eye, crack, eyeblink, flash

plural trices

1. obsoleterareA pulley, a windlass (“form of winch for lifting heavy weights, comprising a cable or rope wound around a cylinder”).

plural Trices

1. A surname.