[f. TRICK sb. or v. + -STER.] One who practises trickery; a rogue, cheat, knave.
1711. Medley, No. 39. The other … was such a Lubbard Trickster, so awkward at Mischief, that he deserv’d only to be laugh’d at.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, II. 260. Tho’ I have won the Game, I hope, Sirs, I am no Trickster.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IX. vi. The Whigs were known to be feeble; they were looked upon as tricksters.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, II. xviii. 2. Diplomatists … commissioned to act as tricksters.
1879. Dixon, Windsor, II. xvi. 171. The woman whom he knew to be a trickster.
attrib. 1889. Voice (N. Y.), 7 March. The bad faith so frequently shown by trickster party leadership.
Hence Trickstering, the action of a trickster (also attrib.); Trickstress, a female trickster.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxvi. I like not this lady’s tampering and trickstering with this same Edmund Tressilian.
1883. Times, 12 July, 10. Due to political trickstering directed against Mr. Bradlaugh.
1889. J. J. Thomas, Froudacity, 77. The cup of loyal forbearance reached the overflowing point since the trickstering days of Governor Irving.
1841. Metropolitan Mag., XXX. 396. Say, vile trickstress, who taught the bird that air?
1870. E. H. Pember, Trag. Lesbos, viii. 119. Nay, young *trickstress, nay!
