Tricky, adj. (colloquial).—Clever, smart, neat (q.v.): cf. trick (once literary) = neat, spruce, trim, elegant.
1877. Horsley, Jottings front Jail. He was very tricky at getting a poge or a toy.
Tried Virgin, subs. phr. (old).—A
harlot: see Tart.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. 'Pant. Prog.' Tried virgins, bona robas, barbers'-chairs.
Trig, subs. (old colloquial).—1. A
cockscomb, a dandy; as adj. (also
trick) = (1) neat, spruce, in good
condition; whence (2) trustworthy,
active, clever: also trig and
trim (or trig and true, tight,
etc.). [Obsolete, provincial, or
colloquial in all uses.] Hence
trigly, trigness, and other
derivatives.
c. 1200. Ormulum, 6177. Thin laferrd birrth the buhsumm beon & hold & trigg & trewwe.
1512-13. Douglas, Virgil, 402. In lesuris and on leyis litill lammes Full tait and trig socht bletand to thare dammes.
1570. Elderton, Lenten Stuffe (Halliwell). So he that hathe a consciens cleere May stand to hys takkell tryklye.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, iv. 1. It is my humour: you are a pimp and a trig, And an Amadis de Gaul, or a Don Quixote.
1787. Burns, To W. Creech. Auld Reekie aye he keepit tight, An' trig and braw; But now they'll busk her like a fright, Willie's awa.'
1804. Tarras, Poems, 124. O busk yir locks trigly, an' kilt up yir coaties.
1816. Scott, Antiquary; xxiv. Fling the earth into the hole, and mak a' things trig again. Ibid. (1825), St. Ronan's Well, ii. 137. The younger snooded up her hair, and now went about the house a damsel so trig and neat, that some said she was too handsome for the service of a bachelor divine.
1821. Galt, Annals of Parish, 29. The lassies who had been at Nanse Banks' school were always well spoken of . . . for the trigness of their houses, when they were afterwards married.
1879. Century Mag., xxviii. 541. The stylish gait and air of the trig little body.
1890. Barr, Olivia, xvil. I wish I was in mid-ocean all trig and tight, Then I would enjoy such a passion of wind.
2. (thieves').—'A bit of stick, paper, etc., placed by thieves in the keyhole of, or elsewhere about, the door of a house, which they suspect to be uninhabited; if the trig remains unmoved the following day, it is a proof that no person sleeps in the house, on which the gang enter it the ensuing night upon the screw, and frequently meet with a good booty, such as beds, carpets, etc., the family being probably out of town.' This operation is called 'trigging the jigger' (Grose).
Verb. (old).—1. To stop: as subs. = an obstacle, prop, or skid.
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. Yet I have heard some serjeants have beene mild, And us'd their prisoner like a Christian's child; Nip'd him in private, never trig'd his way.
1647. Stapylton, Juvenal, xvi. 62. Nor is his suite in danger to be stopt, Or, with the triggs of long demurrers propt.
1651. Cartwright, Poems. Times wheels are trig'd, and brib'd to make a stand.
1870. Judd, Margaret, iii. I stand ready to trig the wheels in all the steep places.
2. (old).—To trudge along, to hasten.
[?]. Old Ballad, 'Three Merry Butchers' [Nares]. As they rode on the road, And as fast as they could trig, Strike up your hearts, says Johnston, We'll have a merry jig.
