Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

(Amelia) #1
didn’t work. The trial balloon was a
great success.

triben. a group of friends or relatives. 
When are you and your tribe going to come
for a visit?


trick on someonein. to deceive someone.
What are you doing? Are you tricking on
me? Mary is always tricking on people
and now nobody trusts her.


tricks of the traden. special skills and
knowledge associated with any trade or
profession. I know a few tricks of the
trade that make things easier. I learned
the tricks of the trade from my uncle.


trigger 1. n. a hired gunman. (Under-
world.) Rocko was a mob trigger for a
while. Get your triggers outa here—then
we can talk. 2. tv. to start something; to
set something off. The noise triggered
an avalanche. One little thing triggered
that blowup, and I want to find out what
it is.


trigger-happymod. eager to fire a gun; ea-
ger to shoot someone or something. 
Rocko is sort of trigger-happy. Watch out.
Ask your trigger-happy hunters to be
careful this year.


trip 1. n. a prison sentence; a trip up the
river. (Underworld.) Yeah, me and
Lefty both was on a little trip for a few
years. I had a short trip, so what? 2. n.
a high from a drug. (Drugs.) Me and
Sid went on a little trip. The trip was
great, but once was enough. 3. in. to ex-
perience a high from a drug, especially
LSD. Don’t bother Bart. He’s tripping.
He trips about every other day. 4. n. a
bad drug experience. (Drugs.) Boy, did
I ever have a trip with that stuff! What
a trip! I thought I would die. 5. n. an an-
noying person or thing. Class was a
trip today. She is such a trip. 6. in. to
leave. I gotta trip, man. Time to trip.
See ya.


tripe 1. n. nonsense. I don’t want to hear
any more of that tripe. That’s just tripe.
Pay no attention. 2. n. a bad perfor-
mance; something worthless. I know
tripe when I see tripe, and that was tripe.


The reviewer thought your play was
tripe.

triple 1. n. a large alcoholic drink contain-
ing three measures of hard liquor. It
was a hard day. Make it a triple, John. 
One triple, but no more. You’re cutting
down, remember? 2. Go to triple-bagger.

triple-bagger 1. and triplen. a hit in base-
ball that gets the batter to third base. 
Wilbur connected for another triple-bag-
ger in the fifth. It’s a triple for Wilbur!


  1. n. a person whose ugly face is so
    frightful that three bags are required to
    conceal it. (Crude. See also double-bag-
    ger; coyote-ugly.) That guy is just a
    triple-bagger. He’s worse than a triple-
    bagger—if that’s possible.


triple whammy[“trIpl“WAmi] n. a power-
ful treatment; a powerful shock. The
market crash, the trade figures, and the
death of the secretary of defense was a
powerful triple whammy in Washington
politics this week. The tax bill served as
a triple whammy to the family purse.

tripped outmod. great; excellent. This
party is really tripped out, right? We had
a tripped out time in class today. The
teacher brought his pet rabbit.

TRIsn. the triceps. I’m working on build-
ing up my TRIs. Been doing lots of
pushups.

troll 1. n. an ugly person; a grouchy person.
Gee, that dame is a real troll. What’s her
problem? 2. n. an Internet user who sends
inflammatory or provocative messages
designed to elicit negative responses or
start a flame-war.(As a fisherman trolls
for an unsuspecting fish.) Don’t answer
those silly messages. Some troll is just look-
ing for an argument. 3. n. a message sent
by a troll(sense 2). Every time I get a
troll, I just delete it.

trollkinn. a youthful or inexperienced troll
(sense 2). Some trollkin sent me a mes-
sage trying to make me angry.

thetrotsn. a case of diarrhea. I got the
trots and can’t go out tonight. There’s a
lot of the trots going around.

tribe

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