Orig. and chiefly Sc. [f. TRYST sb.]
1. intr. To make an agreement to do something, with a person; esp. to fix or arrange time and place of meeting with some one.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxx. (Theodera), 334. Scho kepyt þe trist … And with hyr brocht þe man in hy, Quhare scho tristit priuely.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 797. To the Montane he maid hem full boun, Quhair he had trystit to meit Schir Rolland.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., I. xx. § 3 (1699), 108. Whosoever intercommuns with Thieves … or Trysts with them any manner of way.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., V. i. As she had trysted, I met wi’er this night.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, xxxiii. Kit … had trysted with the ‘Orra Man’ to meet him at the smiddy.
2. trans. To engage (a person) to meet one at a given place and time; to appoint or agree to meet.
In quot. 1643, loosely used as = meet.
1643. Declar. Com., Reb. Irel., 60. It was my good fortune … to trist a Barke come from the Isle of Man.
1766. A. Nicol, Poems, 43. He trysted me one evening fair, Among the groves to take the air.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xiii. I am trysted with your cousin Charlie; I have passed my word.
b. With advb. extension: To invite or entice to a place, or to a distance.
a. 1800. in Kinloch, Anc. Scott. Ballads (1827), 157. I trysted her Unto yon shade o’ broom.
1894. Latto, Tam. Bodkin, xxiii. Trystin’ me awa on that eventfu’ pilgrimage.
c. To engage (a person) to do something; to appoint, agree upon, arrange, fix (a task). Only in pa. pple.
1897. [see trysted below].
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, viii. He was trysted to give what help he could to the herd … in lambing time.
3. To appoint, fix (a time, occurrence, etc.).
1586. Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 63. Upoun the XI day of Marche … as the day tryistit and appointit be the said Williame Ker.
1716. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 120. Had not God tristed the flight of the rebels just at that time.
b. To bespeak; to arrange for, or order in advance; to engage.
1825. Jamieson, s.v., ‘I trysit my furniture to be hame’ on such a day.
1894. Latto, Tam. Bodkin, xxiv. I had trystit a chaise an’ pair frae the Fleein’ Horse.
4. To visit with good or evil; of an experience: to come upon, befall; ‘used in relation to a divine ordination’ (Jam.).
1645. R. Baillie, Lett. (1841), II. 314. That this should have trysted the enemie at that tyme and place … is evidentlie God’s hand.
a. 1679. Somerville, Mem. Somervilles (1815), II. 351. Untill Divyne Justice trysted them with some crosse dispensatione.
1681. R. Fleming, Fulfilling Script., Ep. to Rdr. (1726), 6. The most eminent and honourable service of the church doth usually tryst her in a low and suffering condition.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xl[i]. Sair she’s been trysted wi’ misfortunes.
† b. To fix upon. Obs. rare–1.
1700. Sir A. Balfour, Lett., 254. They go at the Rate of an Ordinary Horse trot, & as they go will trist the stones to step upon, which lye confusedly here and there, as exactly as if they were a paire of stairs.
† 5. intr. To coincide in time with; to fall together, concur. Also trans. in causal sense (quot. 1681). Obs.
1676. W. Row, Contn., Blair’s Autobiog., ix. (1848), 134. His stroke trysting with the public burden.
1681. R. Fleming, Fulfilling Script., I. (1726), 148. What a marvelous concurrence of providence … was in this judgment, the besieging of Jerusalem by the Romans, trysted with the very time of the passover [etc.].
1730. T. Boston, Mem., iv. (1899), 39. That discouragement and the spring-season trysting together, there was a notable breach made in my health.
6. intr. To keep tryst; to meet at the appointed time and place.
a. 1842. Cunningham, in Casquet of Lit. (1886), V. 303. There flows the stream I’ve trysted through, when it was wild in flood.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 7 Dec., 11/2. When the Cottesmore trysted at Somerby on Saturday.
† 7. intr. To treat or negotiate with. Obs.
1637. Rutherford, Lett. to Lady Kilconquhair, 8 Aug. You came to this life about a necessary and weighty business, to tryst with Christ anent your precious soul.
1637–50. [see TRYSTING vbl. sb. 1].
1639. Ld. Wariston, Diary (S.H.S.), 351. We trysted on al day with the Commissioner, bot could settle nothing.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1850), I. 176. Thay raisit ane army and cam to Innervrie, quhilk he could not resist, nor whome fra he could onnawayis flie, be sea or land, [and he] wes forsit to tryst and give his band, no doubt to thair contentment.
Hence Trysted, Trysting ppl. adjs.
1793. Burns, Mary Morison, i. It is the wish’d, the trysted hour!
1878. T. Hardy, Return of Native, I. ix. The conversation of the trysting pair could not be overheard.
1897. Crockett, Lad’s Love, xxix. That his shepherd … is shirking his trysted labour.
