Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US/Aus., also tricksie) a small or amusing adult, animal or child.

1887		Century mag. (N.Y.) May 113/1: We uns playd tergether w’en we wuz little tricks [DA].
1890		Stock Grower and Farmer 29 Mar. 7/1: Down in the Panhandle [...] I used to ride a little trick named Dandy [DA].
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Feb. 2/3: Florrie Ranger is in great form, and her naughty little wink is a trick!
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Oct. 10/1: Then orf I goes to bed again, / Nurse wheelin’ me (that girl’s a trick!).
1934		O. Strange Sudden 30: I lost his mother when he was no more’n a li’l trick.
1937		Sydney Morn. Herald 3 Apr. 13/5: The Dik-Dik’s very, very small, / A cunning little trick.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 9: Anybody ever tell you you’re a cute little trick?
1956		H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 6: Grack [...] stood in his box near San Diego and plucked a tricksie in shorts as she wriggled by.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 14: What, driving a hearse? I would look a trick.
1966		P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 226: ‘Why,’ she said, ‘what a trick you are!’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 114/2: trick an amusing or alert child.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. a clever person, also used sarcastically.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Dec. 30/3: Dodger: ‘Yers, yous women’s fair tricks.’.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 18/3: He had the reputation for being the ‘deadest trick’ of a publican out West, but, of course, we couldn’t be taken down.
1911		H. Shearin ‘An Eastern Kentucky Dialect Word-List’ in Dialect Notes III vii 540: trick, n. a term of scorn, as in ‘You’re a pretty trick!’.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘Hitched’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 78: O, lumme! But ole Ginger was a trick!
1915		F. Garrett diary 19 Aug. 🌐 Our cookie begrimed with grease and soot and wearing a felt which [...] had been used pretty frequently as a pad to lift pots off the fire, and looking a trick generally.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 14: Wally (Slicker) McGhee is still as quick a trick as you ever want to meet.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 159: You should dig the corsage this trick bought Maxine.

3. (Aus.) an attractive individual.

1915

Sport (Adelaide) 21 May 3/7: Boxing Dick and Elsie P / Go out riding in the night, / And Elsie looked a real trick / Dressed up just alright.

4. used of an inanimate object.

1922

Broadway Brevities Aug. 3/1: On a recent week-end at Lake Hopatcong we ran across the cutest little trick in the form of a full-fledged gambling joint you could find in four states.