Inflected trigged, -ing. [Etymology uncertain: perhaps ad. ON. tryggja, ODa. trygge to make firm or secure, from tryggr firm, sure, true.
This derivation fairly suits the sense; the difficulty being that to trig (in this sense) is not a northern or Sc. word, but is at home in dialects south of the Thames, which makes a Norse origin unlikely.]
1. trans. To make firm or fast; to prevent from moving; esp. to apply a wedge, block, or the like, to (a wheel) in order to stop or retard its motion.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Calzar, to shoo. Calceare, to trig a wheele [mod. Sp. Dict., calzar, to shoe … to stop a wheel].
1651. Cartwright, Poems (Nares). Times wheels are trig’d, and brib’d to make a stand.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 155. With free Chariot, fat Damasippus hurries; he, (He! even the consul) triggs the wheel.
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v. Trigger, An Iron to Trig or Stay a Wheel.
1802. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., VI. 235. Our friend Haterius should be trigged like a cart-wheel on an inclined plane.
1830. Seba Smith, Major J. Downing (1860), 72. They make pesky bad work, trigging the wheels of Government.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, III. (1871), 397. I stand ready to trig the wheels in all the steep places.
2. To support or shore up with a wedge; to wedge up; to prop. Often with up.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 26. Shores, which ought to be placed on Timber Foundations, called Sholes, and well nog’d or trig’d.
1883. Baring-Gould, J. Herring, xiv. She made him raise the hearthstone, and trig it up with a piece of granite. Ibid. (1899), Bk. West, xvii. To prevent the springs being broken … the axle-trees had been ‘trigged up’ below with blocks of wood.
† 3. Thieves’ slang. See TRIG sb.1 2. Obs.
Hence Trigging vbl. sb.
1667. Flavel, Saint Indeed (1754), 148. The wheels being oiled with delight, run nimbly, and have often need of trigging. Ibid. (1682), Fear, vi. 78. Our thoughts run nimbly … like oyled wheels, and have need of trigging.
