Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to work as a prostitute, to have sex with a client; thus tricking n. [note Milner & Milner, Black Players (1972): ‘By implication, one is literally tricking a man by taking money for doing what women should do for free.’].

[1550		C. Bansley Pryde and Abuse of Women line 45: Sponge up youre vysage, olde bounsynge trotte, And trick it with the beste, Tyll you tricke and trotte youre selfe To the devyls trounsynge neste].
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 150: A lot of ’em were prostitutes anyway; they were always firing some of ’em for tricking on the job.
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 136: We won’t make a bankroll tricking bums.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 184: No matter how often I trick, as soon as I’m with a man I get shaky.
a.1963		‘The Fall’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 83: She tricked with Frenchmen, torpedoes, and henchmen; / To her it was all the same.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 12: Smokey had tricked her way out of a cotton field . . . when she was thirteen.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 172: He didn’t know if they tricked during the evening and then took an all-nighter.
2002		G. Pelecanos Hell to Pay 141: Schoolgirl’s inside. Trickin’ some old Al Roker-lookin’ sucker.
2006		Burns & Price ‘Corner Boys’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 8 [TV script] Still trickin’ for that clown?
2013		Buzzfeed 25 July 🌐 ‘Do you date?’ ‘I’m married,’ I told her. [...] ‘No, I mean, do you trick?’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 111: ‘I know you trick three ways with her’.

2. to have casual sex.

1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 145: he likes to smoke a joint of grass once in a while, and something else – he likes to trick the gals.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 78: I personally get a little sick of wrecking my liver [...] for the privilege of tricking with some guy whose lover is in LA for the weekend.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 138: Do you trick with Bobby?
2005		E. White My Lives 284: Stan had tricked with him.
2012		interview on BBC World Service 10 Sept. [radio program] She was just out tricking.

3. (gay) to pick up a partner for casual, unpaid sex.

1978

R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 231: I trick a lot, man.

4. of a man, to pay for sex with a prostitute.

1964		R.D. Abrahams Deep Down in the Jungle 216: This woman had a whore house [...] But the police was getting on them so bad that it was hot. Every time the police would come in they would trick with one of them, soon as they gave the girls money they would lock her up.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 32: In any section where Negro whores operate white men will top trick with them.
1994		G. Indiana Rent Boy 106: If the mark tricked with Mavis, see, we were going to approach them like a pair of muggers.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 14: They [i.e. pimps] don’t mind you tricking with them but don’t try to help one of them damn whores.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 45: Guess what his smart ass said? If he can be in here tricking on me then that negro can be in there getting money!

5. of a man, occas. a woman, to spend money on a woman in the hope of being repaid with sex.

1980		Spoonie G ‘Love Rap’ 🎵 You’re a sucker-sucker dude for thinking you’re slick / Cause all you gonna do with the girl is trick.
1998		Source Oct. 90: Is that really how you guys are living, not tricking for females?
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 21: That’s right! I tricks that money I get from this nigga here every month, aaalll fourteen hundred of it!