Also 4–7 tryce, trise, 5–6 tryse; 8–9 erron. trace. [a. MDu. trîsen, Du. trijsen to hoist = MLG. trîssen, trîtsen, whence also Da. trisse, Ger. triezen to hoist. Ulterior history obscure.]
† 1. trans. To pull; to pluck, snatch, draw with a sudden action; rarely, to carry off (as plunder). To trice one out of a thing, to do one out of it by sudden force. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monk’s T., 535. By god out of his sete I wol hym trice [v.rr. tryce, trise].
1421–2. Hoccleve, Dial., 208, in Min. Poems, 117. Whan that deathe shall men from hence trice.
1446. Lydg., Nightingale Poems, i. 336. Deth wyll you trise, ye wot not how ne whenne.
c. 1450. Lovelich, Grail, xiii. 20. In the tyme Of the chas, Alle Tholomes harneis Itrised was.
1500–25. in Thoms’ Anecd. (Camden), 31. Sir William … makes no more adoe but trices him up, and throwes him into the Thames.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, Argt. C j. After he was left naked and triced away from al his goodes, or bereued of al that euer he had.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 103. Vntill they might get him triced out of their way.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. viii. § 38. Thus to be triced out of that which so vehemently … he tooke care to see effected.
1618. Bolton, Florus (1636), 106. Wee neverthelesse had tryced him out of most of her Townes and Countries.
2. To pull or haul with a rope; spec. (Naut.) usually with up, to haul or hoist up and secure with a rope or lashing, to lash up.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 832. They trisene vpe þaire saillez, And rowes ouer the ryche see.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 401. They threw him down a Rope from the wall, which he tyed about his middle, and so was triced up by it.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 105. We cast a snare about his neck and so tryced him into the ship.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., iv. 18. Ropes fast triced together with handspikes. Ibid., v. 22. Bunt lines is … a small rope … to trice or draw vp the Bunt of the saile.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xv. (Roxb.), 34/2. They trise vp the anchor from the Hawse to the top of the fore-castle.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, x. 28. All the wet sails were also spread on the booms or triced up in the rigging.
1907. Macm. Mag., Feb., 316. Aft there, two of you,… and trice the ladder up.
Hence Tricing vbl. sb.; also attrib. as tricing-batten, -line, -rope: see quots.
1404. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 397. iiij trasys ij trysyng rapis.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., I. viii. 36. For slinging the yards, bousing or trising.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1776), Tracing-Line [ed. 1815 Tricing-Line],… a small cord … used to hoist up any object to a higher station…. Such are the tracing-lines of the awnings, and those of the yard tackles.
1804. A. B., in Naval Chron., XII. 381. [He] cut one of the tricing lines of the netting.
1836. E. Howard, R. Reefer, xlv. My tricing-up to the truck.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 156. Tricing battens,… to which the sailors trice-up the middle of their hammocks out of the headway.
1909. Athenæum, 30 March, 339/2. The tricing-up of a refractory midshipman to the mast-head.
