TRICE
What does "TRICE" mean?
A very short time; an instant (chiefly in the phrase 'in a trice').
Meanings
- A brief moment; an instant. She had the whole tent packed up in a trice.
- To haul up or secure something with a rope, especially a sail. The crew triced up the canvas before the squall hit. technical
Did you know?
- When you do something 'in a trice', you're invoking a single yank on a rope - the word comes from the Middle Dutch verb for hauling a sail with a pulley.
Word origin
From Middle Dutch 'trisen', to hoist with a rope or pulley; the noun 'in a trice' originally meant the single pull of a rope, hence an instant.
Remember it
TRICE sounds like 'a slice' of time - thin, quick, gone before you taste it.
A little poem
One pull on the rope,
the sail is up, the wind takes -
that fast, you missed it.
haiku
Wordplay
- Ask a sailor how long a trice is and he'll show you, not tell you - one tug of the rope and it's already over.
What it teaches
The smallest unit of time is whatever it takes to change your mind too late.
Quick facts
What does TRICE mean?
A very short time; an instant (chiefly in the phrase 'in a trice').
Is TRICE a valid word?
Yes — TRICE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is TRICE?
TRICE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does TRICE come from?
From Middle Dutch 'trisen', to hoist with a rope or pulley; the noun 'in a trice' originally meant the single pull of a rope, hence an instant.
What can TRICE teach us?
The smallest unit of time is whatever it takes to change your mind too late.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.