English

Noun

trice ‎(plural trices)

1. A roller; windlass.

Etymology 2

From Middle English tryse, in the phrase at a tryse ‎(“with a single, quick motion”, literally “with a pull, jerk”), later also in the phrases at a trice, with a trice, on a trice, in a trice; ultimately from the verb. See below.

Noun

trice ‎(plural trices)

1. A very short time; an instant; a moment; – now used only in the phrase in a trice.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Crown Publishers, Inc. (1975), page 975,

     This is most strange, that she, who even but now was your best object...most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle so many folds of favor.

   • 1907, Robert W. Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses:

     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."

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company. chapter 22. p. 220.

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

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English trisen, trycen, from Middle Dutch trisen ‎(“to hoist”) or Middle Low German trissen ‎(“to trice the spritsail”). Related to Dutch trijsen, Low German trissen, tryssen, drisen, drysen ‎(“to wind up, trice”), German trissen, Danish tridse ‎(“to haul with a pulley”).

Alternative forms

• trise (obsolete)

Verb

trice ‎(third-person singular simple present trices, present participle tricing, simple past and past participle triced)

1. To pull; to haul; to drag; to pull away.
   • Chaucer

     Out of his seat I will him trice.

2. (nautical) To haul and tie up by means of a rope.

Translations

Anagrams

• recti

Scottish Gaelic

Adjective

trice

1. Comparative form of tric.

Adverb

trice

1. Comparative form of tric.