Also 5 tryp, 5–7 trippe, 6 tryppe, 7–8 tripp. [f. TRIP v.]
(The order of the senses here is not chronological, but follows that of the verb.)
I. 1. The action or an act of tripping or moving lightly and quickly; a light lively movement of the feet; tripping gait or tread; the sound of this.
1600. in Bodenham, Eng. Helicon, O iij. More fine in trip, then foote of running Roe.
1694. Dryden, Love Triumph., IV. i. Yonder comes Dalinda; I know her by her trip.
1747. R. Forbes, Lyon in Mourning (1895), I. 117. Some … used to take a dance in the cabin … they could not prevail with her to take a trip.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxxvii. He sometimes could distinctly hear the trip of a light female step.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. xxii. 200. How each his legs in nimble trip, Lifts up and makes a clearance.
† b. spec. A kind of step in dancing. Obs.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., II. iv. Both the swimme and the trip are properly mine, euery body will affirme it, that has any iudgement in dancing.
† c. fig.app. A step towards accomplishing something. Obs. rare.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 6. The King … takes them in the very nick and first tripp that they made towards their design, convicts them of the treason [etc.].
2. fig. In the trip of a minute, in the movement or passage of a minute, in a minute’s space.
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., IV. i. 59. They’ll whip it up, in the Trip of a Minute.
1899. Literature, 25 Nov., 515/1. Mr. Zangwill’s [prologue] has caught the ‘trip’ of the old fashioned prologue.
3. A short voyage or journey; a ‘run.’ Apparently originally a sailor’s term, but very soon extended to a journey on land. a. A short voyage or run of a ship, between two points, or to a point and back again; each of a series of short runs made by a ship or boat; hence also, a short voyage in a ship.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 12. [A vessel pronounced] not to be fit for her being adventured to Sea … for more than a small tripp. Ibid., 15. Making a Tripp for England.
1743. Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 106. After three or four Trips return’d, and anchor’d where we came from.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, IV. lvi. It will be what mariners call a trip to England.
1769. Cook, Voy. round World, II. i. (1773), 293. The little boat was obliged to make three trips before we could all get over to the rest of the party.
1773. Life N. Frowde, 81. We were one Voyage to Dantzic and Hamburgh, another to Copenhagen and Stockholm,… During all these Trips, my Polly and I wrote to each other.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxi. The good steamer Pirate, which lay at the levee, ready for a trip up the Red River.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Trip, an outward bound passage or short voyage, particularly in the coasting trade.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xvi. 270. Two trips were required to transport the increased numbers.
b. A short journey or run on land; esp. each of a series of journeys or runs over a particular route.
(The meaning in quot. c. 1440 is doubtful.)
[c. 1440. York Myst., xviii. 133. An aungell … bad me flee With hym and þe On-to Egipte. And sertis I dred me sore To make my smale trippe.]
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. III. viii. 94. I pass’d the Isthmus twice, and was 23 days in the last Trip that I made over it.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 53. If ever he make a Trip by Land, it’s a Wonder.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xvi. 169. The food I could bring from the vessel by occasional trips with my dog team.
1901. Daily News, 3 Jan., 6/4. These two men work on eight-trip shifts, each trip consisting of an eastward and westward journey. Ibid. (1906), 22 Dec., 6. The ’bus-driver … is paid by ‘trip,’ and anxious to get his trips done.
c. A short journey (by sea or land) for pleasure or health, an excursion (more fully pleasure trip); in later use often applied to such a journey whatever its length. Also applied to a passage by rail provided at a fare lower than the usual; a cheap trip, an excursion; occas. short for ‘party of trippers’ or ‘trip-train.’
This arose imperceptibly out of a or b, and it is not easy to fix its first use.
c. 1749. Lady Luxborough, Lett. to Shenstone (1775), 159. If you would take a trip to this little Retreat at this melancholy season.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 152. A passage over the Alps, or a journey across the Pyrenees, appear pretty trips or excursions, in the comparison.
1812. Religionism, 25. Lectureship Will meet th’expences of a country trip.
1861. Thornbury, Turner (1862), I. 18. Later trips to Margate made him love Kent and the sea.
1880. Sat. Rev., 2 Oct., 423/2. On inquiring … what it all means, he is told that ‘a trip is in’ from some large manufacturing town, and his peace is gone, for that day at least.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 29 Aug., 14/1. [They] hurry off on flying trips to Kerry or Connemara.
† d. An account or description of a journey. Obs.
1712. Swift, Lett. Eng. Tongue, Wks. 1755, II. I. 189. Those monstrous productions, which under the name of trips, spies, amusements, and other conceited appellations, have over-run us for some years past.
e. Each run or voyage of a fishing vessel; also (U.S.) the catch or take of fish during a single run; the proceeds of a trip in fish.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
f. Mining. A train of cars run in and out of a mine as a single unit.
1909. in Cent. Dict. Suppl.
4. Naut. A single board or reach in tacking; a tack. Also transf. a run on land.
1700. T. Brown, Amusem. Ser. & Com., 34. I Tack’d about, and made a Trip over Moor-fields.
1708. Constit. Watermen’s Co., lxi. If any Tilt-Boat-Master … shall … turn to Windward in any of the said Boats except one Trip in each particular Reach.
1722. Capt. Ogle, in Lond. Gaz., No. 6091/3. The wind took me a-head and I made two Trips.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Trip … also denotes a single board in plying to windward.
II. 5. ‘A stroke or catch by which the wrestler supplants his antagonist’ (J.); a sudden catching of a person’s foot with one’s own so as to cause him to lose his balance and stumble or fall.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. 1867. Sodeynly to make hym doun to falle, And with a trip, þrowe hym on þe bake.
1530. Palsgr., 283/1. Tryppe in wrastlyng, crochet, jambet. Ibid., 762/2. I gyve one a tryppe, or caste my foote byfore hym to gyve hym a fall.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 776. The Groom … stript for Wrestling, smears his Limbs with Oyl, And watches with a Trip his Foe to foil.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 20. [He] gave a slight trip to his … assailant, who instantly fell.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xxxii. I knew the old De Lacy’s back-trip as well as thou.
b. fig.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 75. Til deeþ þee caste with a trippe of dissaite.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 170. Or will not else thy craft so quickely grow, That thine owne trip shall be thine ouerthrow?
1660. Winstanley, Eng. Worth., Pref. 3. The trips that Writers cunningly give one another.
1884. Sharman, Hist. Swearing, iii. 39. Socrates … held at a just appreciation the trips and sallies of Athenian manhood.
c. In coursing: see quots.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports (ed. 2), I. III. viii. § 2. A Trip or Jerk occurs when a dog in attempting to kill his hare, lays hold of her but loses her again; these score half-a-point.
1890. A. R. Starr, in Upland Shooting, 466. The trip is an unsuccessful effort to hold a rabbit, although the greyhound may touch him, or even tumble him.
6. A stumble or mis-step caused by striking one’s foot against an object so as to lose one’s equilibrium. † To hang on the trip, to hang on the point of falling or toppling over (obs.).
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peak (ed. 4), 42. Jutting Stones that, by the Earth left bare, Hang on the trip, suspended in the air.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., III. 45. Elephants … are the surest footed of all Beasts of Carriage,… it is very rare to see them make a trip.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 231, ¶ 2. The poor Animal being now almost tired, made a second Trip.
1846. J. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 419. If the [horse’s] toe dig into the ground before the foot is firmly placed, a trifle will cause a trip and a fall.
1884. Martineau, in Mem. Anna Stanwick, iii. (1903), 147. A bruise which I got through a trip-up and fall upon some rough rocks.
b. fig. Cf. TRIP v. 8 b, c.
1584. Lyly, Campaspe, 1. ii. It is a signe by the trip of your tongue … that you haue done that to day, which I haue not done these three dayes. (Psyllus) What is that? (Manes) Dined.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., i. The Pulse of Nature neuer giues one trip.
c. Mil. A contrivance for tripping an enemy.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. XI. 14/2. Trip for Checking Infantry and Cavalry … formed by laying the bands singly on the ground three or four feet apart, edge-wise and buttoned.
7. A mistake, blunder; a fault; a slip, lapse; a false step; a slip of the tongue. † To take or have in a trip (also † to take trip), to catch tripping, to detect in an error (obs.).
(In some cases take in a trip seems to have been misunderstood to mean ‘take in a trap.’)
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Mark x. 63. Ye other desired more to take him in a trip, then to be healed: to proue him, rather then to learne.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (1895), 91. [To] fynde some hole open to set a snare in, wherewith to take the contrarie parte in a trippe.
1579. Fulke, Refut. Rastel, 725. He is taken tardie in his owne trip.
1594. J. Dickenson, Arisbas (1878), 69. Thus fell Loue into a trip: Thus she galde him with a quip.
1604. N. D., 3rd Pt. Three Convers. Eng., 214. Sutcliffe, being taken trip by E. O. … beateth himselfe vp and downe pittifully.
1628. Milton, Vacation Exerc., 3. And mad’st imperfect words with childish tripps, Half unpronounc’t, slide through my infant-lipps.
1773. J. Berridge, Wks. (1864), 130. A trip in one point would have spoiled all.
1841. Bp. Wilberforce, in Croker Papers (1884), 23 July. An occasional trip in the performance was what threw you out.
III. 8. Mech. A contrivance that trips (see TRIP v. 14); a projecting part of some mechanism that comes into momentary contact with another part so as to cause or check some movement. (Cf. TRIP-HAMMER.)
1906. Westm. Gaz., 6 March, 10/1. To protect trains in foggy weather, when the arms and lights of signals are obscured, the automatic train-stop has been installed…. A little arm is raised to a vertical position and strikes a trip on the front motor-car of the passing train. By this operation current is cut off.
1907. Daily Chron., 8 Aug., 2/3. In dismounting the pedal is again held against the trip, and by it the rider swings himself comfortably out of the saddle to drop on his foot as the cycle is still moving along.
IV. 9. attrib. and Comb. (in some cases perh. from the vb.-stem); in sense 3, as trip-card, -committee, -fund, -mileage, -taking; in sense 8, describing an appliance for catching, releasing, or actuating some part, or a machine operated by such a device, as trip-coil, -cord, -cut-off, -die, -lever, -motion, -piece, -pin, -wagon, -wheel; also trip-catch, a catch that holds the trip or releasing device until it is tripped; † trip-coat, ? a turn-coat; trip-dial, in a cyclometer, a dial on which the mileage of each trip is registered; trip-engine, a steam-engine having a trip valve-gear (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); trip-gear, short for trip valve-gear (Cent. Dict., 1891); trip-hook, some instrument of torture (perh. an error; cf. GADGE sb.); trip-line, in Lumbering, a light line attached to the dog-book, or to a cable, by which these are recovered or returned; trip money: see quot.; trip-rate, the rate of payment by the trip: see trip-system; trip-shaft: see quot.; trip-sill: see quot.; trip-slip, a strip of paper in which a car conductor registers the number of fares taken on each trip (U.S.); trip system, a system of payment of men in charge of a train, omnibus, or the like by the trip or journey; † trip-taker, one who ‘takes another in a trip,’ a fault-finder; trip-train, a mineral train that is intended to make a certain number of trips, out and home, in the day; also, an excursion train; trip valve-gear, a valve-gear in which the steam is cut off by the tripping of a lever which holds open the steam-valve. See also TRIP-HAMMER.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 492/2. Road-rides are scheduled on cards distributed among the members. These *trip-cards are a commendable feature.
1880. Tolhausen, trans. Uhland’s Corliss-Engines, 193. The edge of a *trip-catch fastened on the eccentric strap, will approximately move on an elliptical path, and trip up against a steel catch-plate fastened on the extremity of the inlet valve-spindle.
a. 1619. Fletcher, Mad Lover, I. i. Twenty of your *trip-coats turn their tippets.
1903. Trans. Amer. Inst. Elect. Engin., 657 (Cent. Supp.). *Trip-coil.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Supp., *Trip-Cut Off, an arrangement to disconnect one portion of the valve motion from the other, so as to allow the cut-off valve to close with great rapidity.
1907. Daily Chron., 27 March, 9/5. For all-round purposes a double cyclometer with *‘trip’ dial is preferable.
1884. Pall Mall G., 11 Sept., 4/1. At the mills and workshops … weekly payments are received towards the *trip fund…. The tickets are supplied … a fortnight beforehand, the trip committee being responsible for the issue and the payment of those actually used.
1846. Browning, Soul’s Trag., I. 333. The glowing *triphook, thumbscrew and the gadge.
1904. Sci. Amer. Suppl., 23 July, 23880. On this stem is fixed a *trip lever, C, which holds B against A by the spring, D.
1905. U.S. Dept. Agric., Logging terms, *Trip-line, a light rope attached to a dog hook, used to free the latter when employed in breaking a jam…. Syn. throw line. Ibid., Haul back, a light wire rope … used to return the cable. Syn. … trip line.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 17 June, 4/2. The Jones Speedometer … registers up to sixty miles an hour, and is fitted with season and *trip mileage.
1891. Labour Commission Gloss., s.v. Money, *Trip money, a term used on canals to mean a payment in addition to tonnage; a bonus given in addition to wages.
1907. Daily Chron., 27 March, 9/6. The ‘Little *Trip Motion.’ Ibid. (1908), 6 June, 8/3. The trip motion … consists of a catch which holds the cranks and pedals at a certain position.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 25 Nov., 8/3. Their grievance is that *trip rates paid them are inadequate, and do not admit of a fair wage.
1864. Webster, *Trip-shaft, (Steam eng.), a supplementary rock-shaft, worked by hand, for starting an engine.
1905. U.S. Dept. Agric., Logging terms, *Tripsill, a timber placed across the bottom of the sluiceway in a splash dam, against which rest the planks by which the dam is closed.
1894. Labour Commission Gloss., s.v., The *trip system on railways is the equivalent of the piece-work system in productive industries.
1556. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia (Arb.), 35, margin. *Triptakers.
1897. Daily News, 31 May, 2/7. The second and fourth weeks in June being very largely given up to *trip-taking and rejoicing.
1894. Labour Commission Gloss., s.v. Trip System, The men working a *trip train are paid a full week’s wages.
1907. Daily News, 28 June, 6. He had come by a trip train to Skegness.
1903. Electr. Rev., 8 Aug., 197. Engines with Corliss *trip-valve gear driven by separate eccentrics.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 405. From these the chargers can take the ore in quantities to suit. A *trip-wagon, holding one charge, is generally used. Ibid. (1877), 429. A fan B, to give the puffs of air; a *trip-wheel, lever, and spring to operate the fan.
