sb. (a.) [ad. L. tridens, trident-em, f. tri- three + dens, dent-em tooth. Cf. F. trident (13–14th c. in Godef., Compl.).]
1. An instrument or weapon with three prongs.
a. esp. A three-pronged fish-spear or scepter as the attribute of the sea-god Poseidon or Neptune, also figured as borne by Britannia.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 18. In the swing of his trident he constituted two lord admirals ouer the whole navy of England.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. i. 256. He would not flatter Neptune for his Trident, Or Ioue, for ’s power to Thunder.
1612. Dekker, Lond. Triumph., Wks. 1873, III. 241. In his hand he holds a siluer Trident, or Three-forked Mace.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, I. 208. The God himself with ready trident stands, And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, vii. Some serrated at the edges like Neptune’s trident.
1898. G. B. Rawlings, Brit. Coinage, 113. In 1797 we have the first English regal copper penny…. Britannia seated to right, the union shield at her side, a palm branch in her right hand and a trident in her left.
b. A three-pronged spear used by the retiarius in ancient Roman gladiatorial combats.
1693. Stepney, in Dryden, Juvenal, viii. (1697), 209. As Retiarius he Attacks his Foe; First waves his Trident ready for the throw, Next casts his Net.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxxix. He flung down net and dagger and trident, and, retreating to the barrier, stood there with folded arms.
c. fig. or in fig. context.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 202. The Syllogisme, which by the saying of a Grecian is the Trident and Mace of Philosophie, is in your Writings all painted and perfumed.
1698. Congreve, Birth of Muse, 109. To Worlds remote, she [Britannia] wide extends her Reign, And wields the Trident of the stormy Main.
1804. A. Duncan (title), The British Trident; or, Register of Naval Actions.
1812. Wellesley, Parl. Deb., 30 Nov. To concede the points … would be to throw into her hands the trident of the main.
2. transf. Applied to something resembling a trident in shape or configuration, as a three-pronged fork, a piece of land with three promontories.
1730. Swift, Lett. to Gay, 10 Nov. Tell her Grace, that the ill management of forks is not to be help’d when they are only bidential … her Grace hath cost me thirty pounds to provide Tridents for fear of offending her.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 101. The two other peninsulas, which form the trident of Chalcidice.
3. Geom. Name of a plane cubic curve of a form suggesting a three-pronged weapon; also trident curve. Also called Cartesian parabola (PARABOLA b).
1710. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., II. Trident is a Name given by Sir Is. Newton to that kind of Parabola, by which D’Cartes constructed Equations of six Dimensions.
1795. Hutton, Math. Dict., II. 191. Cartesian Parabola … xy = ar3+bx2+cx+d … being Newton’s 66th species of lines of the 3d order, and called by him a Trident.
1864. Cayley, Math. Papers, V. 364. The Trident Curve.
4. attrib. and Comb., as trident-bearer, -swayer, tooth; trident-armed, -bearing, -shaped adjs.
1866. J. Conington, Æneid, I. 226. He, *trident-armed, each dull weight heaves.
1749. G. West, Odes Pindar, I. Antistr. v. Invocating oft the name Of the *Trident-bearing God. Strait the *Trident-bearer came.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, xiv. A curious *trident-shaped stand … on the horns of which garlands of flowers are hung as offerings.
1904. C. Lanier, Sonn., in Daily Chron., 21 April, 3/2. *Trident-swayer of emotion’s trembling sea!
1901. G. Meredith, trans. Iliad, Reading of Life, 128. The God drives deep his *trident teeth.
B. as adj. Having three prongs or forks; tridental. Also fig.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 24. Neptune … with his trident mace.
1648. Earl Westmoreland, Otia Sacra (1879), 97. A Trident mischief that doth wound, Requires a Treble Patience to afford Relief.
1864. [see 3 above].
1910. Expositor, Aug., 139. He is represented … hurling the trident lightning and with a huge club.
