subs. (old colloquial).—1. A cockscomb, a dandy; as adj. (also TRICK) = (1) neat, spruce, in good condition; whence (2) trustworthy, active, clever: also TRIG AND TRIM (or TRIG AND TRUE, TIGHT, etc.). [Obsolete, provincial, or colloquial in all uses.] Hence TRIGLY, TRIGNESS, and other derivatives.
c. 1200. Ormulum, 6177.
| Þin laferrd birrþ þe buhsumm beon | |
| & hold & TRIGG & TROWWE. |
1512–3. DOUGLAS, Virgil, 402.
| In lesuris and on leyis litill lammes | |
| Full TAIT AND TRIG socht bletand to thare dammes. |
c. 1562. W. ELDERTON, Lenten Stuff [HALLIWELL].
| So he that hathe a consciens cleere | |
| May stand to hys takkell TKYKLYE. |
1610. JONSON, The Alchemist, iv. 1.
| Kas. It is my humour: you are a pimp and a TRIG, | |
| And an Amadis de Gaul, or a Don Quixote. |
1787. BURNS, To William Creech.
| Auld Reekie aye he keepit tight, | |
| An’ TRIG AND BRAW; | |
| But now they’ll busk her like a fright— | |
| Willie ’s awa! |
1804. W. TARRAS, Poems, 124. O busk yir locks TRIGLY, an’ kilt up yir coaties.
1816. SCOTT, The Antiquary, xxiv. Fling the earth into the hole, and mak a’ things TRIG again. Ibid. (1824), St. Ronan’s Well, ii. 137. The younger snooded up her hair, and now went about the house a damsel so TRIG AND NEAT, that some said she was too handsome for the service of a bachelor divine.
1821. GALT, The Annals of Parish, 29. The lassies who had been at Nanse Banks’ school were always well spoken of … for the TRIGNESS of their houses, when they were afterwards married.
1884. IVORY BLACK, An Effect in Yellow, in The Century Magazine, xxviii. Aug., 541. The stylish gait and air of the TRIG little body.
1890. A. E. H. BARR, Friend Olivia, xvil. I wish I was in mid-ocean all TRIG AND TIGHT. Then I would enjoy such a passion of wind.
2. (thieves’).—‘A bit of stick, paper, etc., placed by thieves in the keyhole of, or elsewhere about, the door of a house, which they suspect to be uninhabited; if the TRIG remains unmoved the following day, it is a proof that no person sleeps in the house, on which the gang enter it the ensuing night upon the screw, and frequently meet with a good booty, such as beds, carpets, etc., the family being probably out of town.’ This operation is called ‘TRIGGING the jigger’ (GROSE).
Verb. (old).—1. To stop: as subs. = an obstacle, prop, or skid.
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes [NARES].
| Yet I have heard some serjeants have beene mild, | |
| And us’d their prisoner like a Christians child; | |
| Nip’d him in private, never TRIG’D his way. |
1647. R. STAPYLTON, Juvenal, xvi. 62.
| Nor is his Suit in danger to be stopt, | |
| Or with demurrers as the TRIGGERS propt. |
1651. CARTWRIGHT, Poems. Times Wheels are TRIG’D, and brib’d to make a stand.
1870. JUDD, Margaret, iii. I stand ready to TRIG the wheels in all the steep places.
2. (old).—To trudge along, to hasten.
[?]. Roxburghe Ballad, ‘The Three Merry Butchers.’
| As they rid on the road, and as fast as they could TRIG, | |
| ‘Strike up your hearts,’ says Johnson, ‘we’ll have a merry jigg.’ |
1653. A. WILSON, The Inconstant Lady, ii. 1.
| After such fearefull apparitions | |
| Hee TRIGGS it to Romilia’s— |
1676. ETHEREGE, The Man of Mode, iii. 3. There’s many of my own xex with that Holborn equipage TRIG to Gray’s Inn Walks.
TO TRIG IT, verb. phr. (old: GROSE).—To play truant; to CHARLEY-WAG (q.v.).
TO LAY A MAN TRIGGING, verb. phr. (old: GROSE).—To knock down, TO FLOOR (q.v.).
