▪ I. tricker1
(ˈtrɪkə(r))
[f. trick v. + -er1.]
1. One who plays tricks or practises trickery; a cheat, deceiver, trickster; also, one who plays a trick or prank.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 107 This tricke..Brought to this tricker nother muse nor mase. 1606 Choice, Chance, etc. (1881) 7 Leaue tricks to trickers. a 1734 North Lives (1826) II. 418 All the various species of politicians and trickers. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 135 These trickers unwittingly speak truth. |
† 2. One who tricks out, decks, or artfully adorns.
| a 1553 C. Bansley Treat. xxx. (Percy Soc.) 8 A wanton tricker..Wyth a double fardyngale and a caped cassoc, moche lyke a players gowne. 1567 Triall Treas. (1850) 24 She hath an amiable face; A tricker, a trimmer, in faith that she is, The goddess of wealth, prosperitie and bliss. 1600 Kemp Nine Daies Wond. i. A iij, Caualiero Kemp..onely tricker of your Trill-lilles, and best bel-shangles betweene Sion and mount Surrey. |
3. One who tricks a coat of arms.
| 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie To Gentl. Inner Temple, I did alwaies abhor the nude title and bare skill of a Blazoner, things common to each painter and tricker of armes. 1688 R. Holme Armoury i. 2/2 Every Painter, Tricker, or a meer Blazoner of Arms, will not serve to make..an absolute Herauld. |
† 4. Some tool used by burglars. Obs. rare.
| 1592 Greene Art Conny catch. ii. D iij, He [the curber] hath his trickers, which are engines of Iron so cunningly wrought, that he wil cut a barre of Iron in two with them. |
▪ II. ˈtricker2
early and dial. form of trigger n.1 (q.v.). Hence tricker-firelock, a hand fire-arm of the middle of the 17th c., discharged by pulling a trigger; tricker-lock, name in the 17th c. for a gun-lock furnished with a trigger, whether a match tricker-lock, or a wheel tricker-lock.
| 1629 Schedule in Meyrick Antient Armour (1824) III. 100 For a match tricker-lock compleat..is. For a handle or guard of a tricker..vid. For furnishing and setting of a tricker lock in place of a feare lock, with a handle, tricker, and tricker pynnes. iis. vid. 1824 Meyrick ibid. 88 The tricker-lock, I conceive, to be that furnished with a hair-trigger, as it is now called. 1855 Jrnl. Brit. Archæol. Assoc. XI. 255 Mr. G. Wright exhibited..a fine example of the lock of a Tricker firelock,..exhumed..from the battle-field of Worcester [1651]. The rising piece above the pan is furrowed, to facilitate the production of the sparks from the pyrites or flint. |