tryst

plural trysts

1. A prearranged meeting or assignation, now especially between lovers to meet at a specific place and time.

   A silence supreme and altogether European. Shutters drawn, shops barred. A red glow here and there to mark a tryst.

   1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961, page 6

   3 more examples

   And Vivien, like the tenderest-hearted maid / That ever bided tryst at village stile, / Made answer, either eyelid wet with tears: […]

   1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivien”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VI), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 23

   But, for the most part, we shall mark our progress to the dawn of life by the measure of those 40 natural milestones, the trysts that enrich our pilgrimage.

   2004, Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life, page 11

   If someone trusts you, what is lost if you betray that trust? As Scarlett is tempted to see it, sometimes nothing at all. If her husband remains ignorant of her tryst, then his trust in her will remain intact. ‘No one gets hurt’ runs her reasoning, so why not go ahead?

   2005, Julian Baggini, The Pig that Wants to be Eaten: And 99 other thought experiments, №91: “No one gets hurt”, page 271 (Granta; →ISBN, 9781862078550)

2. obsoleteA mutual agreement, a covenant.
3. ScotlandhistoricalA market fair, especially a recurring one held on a schedule, where livestock sales took place.

present singular third person trysts · participle present trysting · participle past trysted · past trysted

1. intransitiveTo make a tryst; to agree to meet at a place.
2. transitiveTo arrange or appoint (a meeting time etc.).
3. intransitiveTo keep a tryst, to meet at an agreed place and time.

   1 more example

   He said he was jealous, and craved something to ease his care. 'It's but a small thing I ask,' says he, 'but it will make me a happy man, and nothing ever shall come atween us. Tryst wi' me for Beltane's E'en on the Sker sands, at the green link o' the burn where the sands begin, on the ebb o' the tide when midnight is by, but afore cockcrow. For,' said he, 'that was our forbears' tryst for true lovers, and wherefore no for you and me?'

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide