Now dial. Also 6 trigge, 7 trigg; infl. trigg-: [Origin unknown.] intr. To trot; to walk quickly or briskly; to trip; also to trig it; spec. (slang) see quot. 1796; also trans. or with advb. acc., as in to trig the country, to tramp; to trig (a distance).
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuff, 49. Away to the landes ende they trigge.
1647. Trapp, Comm. 2 Thess. i. 3. How oft are we sitting down on earth,… till affliction call to us, as the angel to Elijah, ‘Up, thou hast a great way to go,’ and then we trigg.
a. 1652. A. Wilson, Inconstant Lady, II. i. Hee triggs it to Romilia’s.
a. 1680. T. Goodwin, Blessed State, xii. Wks. 1703, V. III. 83. His Servant … (who must presently, without more ado, trig and Foot it after his Master).
1700. T. Brown, Amusem. Ser. & Com., 66. She … Trig’d away Hand in Hand with the Gentleman.
1796. Grose’s Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 3), To trig it, to play truant.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Trig, to trot gently; or trip as a child does after its nurse. ‘They trigged off together.’
1872. Hartley, Yorksh. Ditties, Ser. II. 72. Mony a mile he had to trig One sweltin’ summer day.
1891. B. Gregory, in Wesl. Meth. Mag., 56. A travelling tailor, having ‘trigged the country’ in search of work as far as ‘Newrak.’
