Tricking

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈtɹɪkɪŋ/

Definitions

1. Engaging in acts that involve deception and clever manipulation to mislead or fool individuals for entertainment or personal benefit
2. The act of employing cunning and clever tactics to mislead others, often for amusement or to achieve a desired effect
3. Performing deceptive actions that utilize skill and cleverness to mislead others for amusement or to gain an advantage

Etymology: The verb "trick" reached English in the Middle Ages from Old Northern French "trique", and its ancestry is murky. The Old French verb "trichier" meant to defraud, cheat or conceal, and it may descend from a Late Latin verb "tricari", which meant to dodge or quibble, or it may come from a Middle High German word meaning to play a trick on someone. Scholars have also linked it to a Middle Dutch word "treck", meaning a ruse or stratagem, and through that to a Proto-Germanic root meaning to drag or pull, though this connection is not certain. Whatever its source, the core idea of the word is misdirection: a trick is a manoeuvre that pulls someone off course. That sense of drawing a person sideways is why "trick" sits near "track", "trigger" and "treachery" in the family of related words. "Tricking" is the form used for the act itself, the cunning deception of someone.

Synonyms: deceiving, fooling, duping

Antonyms: honoring, truth-telling