Also 6–7 tricksie, -sey, trickesie, trixsie, trixy. [app. f. tricks, pl. of TRICK sb. + -Y, with the natural meaning ‘given to, distinguished by, or abounding in tricks.’]
1. Artfully trimmed or decked; spruce, smart, fine.
1552. Latimer, Serm., John xv. 12 (1572), 153. Let them go as tricksie as they wil in this world, yet for all that they be foule and filthy inough before God.
1577. Kendall, Flowers Epigr., 19 b. Thou wandrest trixsie trimsie fine, with crispt and curled heare.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., III. 51. When he is new become againe, Hauing cast off his skin, and tricksie trim with youth afresh.
1598. Florio, Immarzapanato, become or made fine,… sweete, or daintie,… trickesie, and trim as a marchpane.
1631. Celestina, VII. 88. To see every thing so trimme and tricksie about you.
a 1820. J. R. Drake, Culprit Fay, iv. (1835), 12. Their little minim forms arrayed In the tricksy pomp of fairy pride!
1852. D. G. Mitchell, Dream Life, 150. The tricksy panoply that he has wrought out of the mettle of his classics.
2. Full of or given to tricks or pranks; playful, sportive; mischievous, capricious, whimsical.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. v. 74. I doe know A many fooles … Garnisht like him, that for a tricksie word Defie the matter.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. Prol. Tricksey tales of speaking Cornish dawes.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., I. xi. Wks. 1873, II. 63. [Stage-direction] Enter Candido like a Prentise. Wife. Why how now mad-man, what in your tricksi-coats?
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 226. Ariel. Sir, all this seruice Haue I done…. Prospero. My tricksey Spirit.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. iv, A rich, idiomatic diction, picturesque allusions, fiery poetic emphasis, or quaint tricksy turns.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, ii. 5. My lady … Bends her splendour awhile to tricksy frolic.
1895. Crockett, Love Idylls (1901), 125. The tricksy maid clapped her hands and laughed merrily.
3. Full of tricks or deception; tricky, crafty, cunning, cheating.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xxvi. I still continued tricksy and cunning, and was poor, without the consolation of being honest.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (ed. 3), I. 25. The tricksy humilities of the ambitious candidates for the favorable suffrages of the judicious public.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 241. Willoughby had to tell of the escapades of tricksy trout.
4. That is apt to play tricks upon one; that needs cautious handling: = TRICKY a. 2, TICKLISH.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, I. xxi. 146. The second and third stories are ornamented with tricksy-looking iron balconies.
1862. Morn. Star, 21 May. Kidderminster is a tricksy borough. Its people have a knack of taking their own way.
1900. H. Sutcliff, Shameless Wayne, i. A lass is tricksy handling ut sich times.
Hence Tricksical a., inclined to be tricksy or to play tricks; Tricksily adv., in a tricksy or sportive manner.
1866. Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, III. 163. The heathen deities,… that once tricksily danced over the classic landscapes.
1875. Yorkshire Herald, 2 March, 3/6. Lisette is a charming, tricksical, good-hearted little maiden.
1889. Pall Mall G., 28 May, 3. Imagination is, indeed, a tricksical jade.
