Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a prostitute.

1998

D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 7: She reminded me of those tricksters you’d see in Beverly Hills and Vegas. Drop-dead light hooks who’d hauled their racks out of their little hometowns to go scoop a rich guy somewhere.

(US black) a general derog. term, the implication is of sexual inadequacy (for a man) or promiscuity (for a woman).

1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 38: You’re nothing but a young, trick-ass punk.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 95: Call ’im ‘sack o’ mothafuckas,’ ‘trick-ass nigger.’ Tell ’im get out you face.
1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Ain’t No Fun’ 🎵 Hoe you’ll never be my only one, trick ass beeeitch!
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 305: Delgado grabbed hold of one of her thin wrists. ‘Trick-ass bitch.’.

(orig. US black) an illegitimate child born to a prostitute.

1961		C. Cooper Jr Weed (1998) 157: Mama told him once, how they all had different fathers. Trick babies.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 144: Often a ho’s children will be cruelly taunted as ‘trick babies’ by the neighbors’ children.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 200: A mulatto trick baby spewed out on the toilet floor of a Watts bucket of blood saloon.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 258: I dont want no trick baby!

1. (US black) an unpleasant and disadvantaged position, a no-win situation.

1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 115: I’m gonna try to put somebody in the trick bag.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 169: Silk said that his sister is a ‘ho’ because she puts men into a ‘trick bag.’.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 233: We’re caught in a trick bag. We’re going down.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 47: Trick Bag A no-win situation. When a person is placed in an unfavorable and compromising situation, he is said to be placed in a trick bag.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 13: ‘Yeah, dawg, caught a P.V. myself.’ ‘Parole in Nevada is a trick bag, bro! They violating motherfuckers from the jump.’.
2008		Simon & Burns ‘Transitions’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 4 [TV script] He weren’t the one that put me in this trick bag.

2. a fool, one who thinks they are better than they are.

1987

(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 256: This ain’t basic training and you ain’t John fuckin’ Wayne, trickbag.

3. see also SE compounds below.

(US und.) a book or record kept by a pimp which lists his girls’ regular clients.

1991		C. Fletcher Pure Cop 86: She had a trick book in her condo that had pages and pages of girls’ names.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 257: ‘He doesn’t keep a trick book or a girl book. He keeps it all in his head’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 257: I keep a trick list [of] all the big-name guys who put the boots to my girls.

(US black) a prostitute.

1972		J. Hudson ‘Hustling Ethic’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 420: [T]rick broads desire [that a pimp be] a competent and satisfying sex partner.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 88: A slangier usage [for ‘whore’] produces trickbroads.

(US prison) that bunk in a convict dormitory which is used for clandestine sex.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 199: So that’s what the dorm tender meant warning Joe that he’d been assigned to the trick bunk. Of course, it was the furthest from the door, least visible to passing guards, best suited for the quickie [...] date.

(US black) the father of a prostitute’s child.

2002

‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 157: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Tar baby. Trick daddy. Mack daddy.

(US gay) a day on which each partner of a gay couple is allowed to enjoy an alternative partner.

1964

Homosexuality & Citizenship in Florida 24: Glossary of Homosexual Terms [...] trick day: A day that two married homosexuals are free to go with someone else for one night .

(US Und.) money earned by a prostitute.

1963

in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 21: She was forking a lot of her trick dough over to this here Indian tea leaver.

(gay) a pornographic film.

1970

J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1/2 59: trick flick n Pornographic movie.

(US black) a brothel.

1930		M. West Babe Gordon (1934) 123: A swell trade trick house, maybe?
1961		C. Cooper Jr Weed (1998) 219: It was a trickhouse, where the whores brought their customers.
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 24: My mother tried... to stop me from hanging around pool rooms and trick-houses.

(US black) the money a prostitute earns and hands over to her pimp.

1968

‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.

1. (US Und.) an apartment, room or hotel room used by prostitutes to entertain their clients.

1970		J. Wambaugh New Centurions 187: ‘[T]hese tails you been pulling where you tail the whore to the trick pad and hear her offer the guy a French for ten bucks’.
1986		J. Ellroy Silent Terror 47: It was a makeshift ledger of customers [...] and notations as to whether the ‘date’ would be held at a motel, the ‘trick pad’ or the girl's apartment itself.
1991		C. Fletcher Pure Cop 84: I arrested a woman in her fifties who ran a big call girl operation. She had trick pads in about five condominiums.
1997		A. Highcrest At Home on the Stroll 48: The trick pad made it possible for me to cater for fetishists.
2008		C. Faust Money Shot [ebook] There were also a few minimally furnished studio apartments that looked like trick pads.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 123: Jones is cribbed up with Jefferson somewhere [...] Coco’s trick pad is way too hot.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 112: These trick pads are hot-wired, and you never know who’s listening.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2003

G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 258: A blacktop badland [...] still littered with trick-pad motels, last-stand truck stops and drinker’s bars.

(US) a homosexual man.

1987

R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 137: This trick rider pikes his pecker up his crack and takes it between the legs like a woman.

(US und.) a prostitute who robs their clients.

2000

P. Earley Super Casino 201: Donna was a ‘trick-roller’—a prostitute who stole from her customers.

a room, in a hotel or motel, where a prostitute can take clients.

1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 29: There was a ‘Fast sheet’ joint with the trick rooms in the rear.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 92: She took me to the trick room and closed the door.

a prostitute’s dress that can be removed easily and is thus suitable for business.

1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 11: I’ve seen real treats done up in trick suits in the beatnik shops.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 200: trick suit easy to remove clothing.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 212: He dresses like a pimp [...] wearing some kind of trick suit.

(gay) a towel for wiping oneself after intercourse.

1964		Lavender Lex. n.p.: trick towel:– Towels, cloths, or anything used for cleaning or washing after sex intercourse. This is an old prostitute term.
1970		J.P. Stanley ‘Homosexual Sl.’ in AS XLV:1–2 59: trick towel n. Towel used to clean up after intercourse.

(US black) a gullible black man.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

(US Und.) of a prostitute, to rob a client.

1986–7

Maledicta IX 149: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] beat a trick (rob a customer).

in prostitution, a good customer.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 149: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] boss trick (good customer).

a particularly wealthy or generous client for a prostitute.

2000

Desdemona at www.asstr.org 🌐 Baxter was her champagne trick. He always paid well.

pertaining to the poorer of a prostitute’s clients.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 60: It was parked at an intersection in a cheap-trick district.

1. of a man, to have sexual intercourse; also in homosexual use.

1635		J. Shirley Lady of Pleasure IV i: I hope she has another customer / To do the trick withal.
1665		M. Stevenson Poems 8: Like that desperate Dick / Will have none do the trick / With his Wife, but a Gentleman.
1680		Rochester ‘Love to a Woman’ in Works (1999) 38: There’s a sweet soft Page of mine / Can doe the Trick worth Forty wenches.
1691		‘The Virgin’s Complaint’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1878) II 930: Richard took me in the Nick, / Told me that he was Love-sick, / Yet did intend to do the Trick.
c.1700		London-Bawd (1705) 71: She wanted no Customers, each Person that came generally made Choice of her to do the Trick with.
1748		Spy on Mother Midnight I 20: I’ll be hanged if you would do the Trick with the ’Squire’s Gentleman for half a Word.
1834		‘Flare Up!’ in Black Joke 5: He took her to a baudy-ken [...] And then he did the trick they say.
1837		‘Mother Jones’ in Ticklish Minstrel 32: The mot tells me I do the trick prime.
1842		‘The Copper Stick’ in Nancy Dawson’s Cabinet of Songs 4: He show’d a member long and thick, / A regular one to do the trick.
1865		‘The Devil To Pay’ Rambler’s Flash Songster 44: This is my sugar stick, / So do not cut your luckey, / I’ve come to do the trick, / For you, my dearest ducky.
1882		Cremorne I 28: Three times I’d done the trick for her; she’d pretty well drained my tarse.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 15 Mar. 12/3: [in the context of conception] They Say [...] That Oscar N [...] ought to have less to do with the girls, or they will be ‘doing the trick’ and putting in for the baby bonus.
1968		G. Radano Walking the Beat 69: This hooker [...] I give her the money, she starts to strip: I can’t lock her up! I just can’t! What a doll! So I do the trick and leave.
1970		San Diego Sailor 35: I knew we couldn’t do the trick in that position.
1979		‘Baker’s Boy’ in Bold (1979) 11: On the third day to his surprise / After he’d done the trick, / The only result of his enterprise / Were the pimples on his prick.

2. (UK Und.) to blunder.

1812

Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 236: do the trick: [...] a man who has imprudently involved himself in some great misfortune, from which there is little hope of his extrication is declared by his friends, with an air of commiseration, to have done the trick for himself; that is, his ruin or downfall is nearly certain.

3. (orig. UK Und.) to get what one wants, to succeed, e.g. to perform a successful robbery, to achieve a seduction [SE from late 19C].

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 236: do the trick: to accomplish any robbery, or other business successfully; a thief who has been fortunate enough to acquire an independence, and prudent enough to tie it up in time, is said by his former associates to have done the trick.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812].
1833		F. West Fun for Winter Evenings 43: Star of the stable! Ostler Dick, / Still in your calling wide awake; / I warrant you can do the trick – / A cunning cove, and no mistake .
1835		J.C. Apperley Nimrod’s Hunting Tour (1874) 151: They [horse] are [...] picked out of these and other sale-stables, if likely to ‘do the trick’.
1848		Era (London) 4 June 4/2: You have put us in the hole — you have done the trick at last.
1851		Hants. Chron. 22 Nov. 4/5: Another witness heard them say that they had plenty of money, for they had ‘done the trick’.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 95: There’s the cove that’ll do the trick for you!
1864		Derby Day 38: If the little ‘un don’t do the trick me an’ him’ll fall out.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 354: First kiss does the trick.

4. of a woman, to lose one’s virginity, to be deflowered.

1879

Pearl 4 Oct. in Bold (1979) 135: She longs with her lover to do the trick, / And in secret she longs for a taste of his prick!

5. to impregnate a woman.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1997		Share Slanguage.

6. (Aus.) to get married.

1912		Sport (Adelaide) 10 Aug. 14/4: They Say [...] That J..X. could not go to the football last Saturday, as he is saving up to do the trick.
1918		Aussie (France) 7 Sept. 7/1: Now, look ’ere, Dad, square an’ all, I’m dead shook on Marcelle ’ere; an’ if you’re willin’, I’ll do the trick any ol’ time when we ain’t in the line.

7. (Aus.) to buy a round of drinks.

1996

J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 162: [I]t was about time for him to hit his kick because he was in the chair and everyone was as dry as a wart on an Arab’s donger from waiting for him to do the trick.

(N.Z. gay) an underage male prostitute.

2010

W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 71: In New Zealand there have been many terms for a young male street worker. These include school bag, street solicitor, merchandise, Kleenex, commercial, trade, street trick, and Illegal Tegel.

to have sexual intercourse.

1922

Joyce Ulysses 310: Belle in her bloomers misconducting herself and her fancy man feeling for her tickles and Norman W. Tupper bouncing in with his peashooter just in time to be late after she doing the trick of the loop with officer Taylor.

(US prostitute) any customer who requires out-of-the-way sex or who attacks the woman physically.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1986–7		Maledicta IX 150: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] freak trick (session with fetishist or similar).

to work as a prostitute.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(US Und.) to perform male homosexual fellatio.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 166/1: Pull a trick. [...] 3. To engage in an act of oral sodomy or pederasty.

a prostitute’s client who requires no ‘extras’ beyond normal intercourse.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 190: straight trick normal heterosexual position.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 150: The original argot of prostitution includes some words and phrases which have gained wider currency and some which have not […] straight trick (no-frills sex).

see separate entry.

subterfuge, deception.

1972

(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 29: Trickology must be used whenever it was impossible to rip it off.

(Irish) showing off.

1952		B. MacMahon Children of the Rainbow 4: Trick-acting the girls were, with little attention for the coursing field.
1994		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 204: Most of the men wouldn’t have the price for a pint so they’d stand at the corners [...] You’d see them laughing and joking and trick-acting ... cause they’d no money to go in and get a pint.
1995		S. Power Those Were the Days n.p.: The street was teeming with people of all ages [...] the youngfellas trick-acting with youngwans [BS].

1. (US) a fig. respository of secrets and surprises.

1971		Ellis & Newman ‘Six Ghetto Roles’ in Leacock Culture of Poverty (1971) 304: Concomitant with his ‘smarts’ is the ability to be flexible—the hustler’s skill to ‘come out of many different trick bags’.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 72: Looking into your trickbag again.

2. see also sex compounds above.

(Aus.) to be consistently unlucky.

1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 211: He tells us we might be Aussies but we can’t take a trick. He says we got a canin’ in Greece an’ had to get out.
1963		D.H. Crick Martin Place 192–3: Looks like curtains for you, pal. Can’t take a trick [GAW4].
1977		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Feb. 11: The ACTU leader can’t take a trick.

a practical joke.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

(Aus. prison) suicide.

1894

‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 117: If Felix could not execute the order of doom before the twenty-eighth day [...] he, the condemned, would perform the ‘cross-road trick.’ Which was — suicide.

to deal dishonestly with another person.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 166/1: Pull a trick [...] To commit any unethical or treacherous act against another.

(US black) to persuade into marriage.

1946

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 27 July 17: When will some slick chick put the trick on Johnny Silvers.

(Aus.) to show promise; to be successful.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 14/3: The Victorian Racing Club certainly ‘takes a trick’ for the period of the year fixed upon by them for their Autumn meeting. The worst of the heat has passed over, equines are fit, and previous running has given the handicapper a ‘line’ from which exciting finishes may be looked forward to.

see separate entry.