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Trickster   /trˈɪkstər/   Listen
Trickster

noun
1.
Someone who plays practical jokes on others.  Synonyms: cut-up, hoaxer, practical joker, prankster, tricker.
2.
Someone who leads you to believe something that is not true.  Synonyms: beguiler, cheat, cheater, deceiver, slicker.
3.
A mischievous supernatural being found in the folklore of many primitive people; sometimes distinguished by prodigious biological drives and exaggerated bodily parts.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Trickster" Quotes from Famous Books



... Carter, you and I believe that these things are done by some clever trickster. It may be that some bogus medium who used to get the colonel's good money away from him, wants more of it, and is taking this means of driving my uncle back to the ...
— The Crime of the French Cafe and Other Stories • Nicholas Carter

... Josiah Crabtree, you are a trickster of the first water, but if I can prevent your trickery I am going to do it." Tom turned to Mrs. Stanhope, who was now crying violently. "Won't you go below and let me have ...
— The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes • Arthur M. Winfield

... Crailey Gray the first to enlist, and as for myself, I've raised sixty men in the country, and I want forty more from Rouen, in order to offer the Governor a full company. So it's come to 'the King, not the man'; Polk is a pitiful trickster, but the country needs her sons; that's enough for us to know; and while I won't drink to James Polk "—he plunged a cup in the bowl and drew it out brimming—"I'll empty ...
— The Two Vanrevels • Booth Tarkington

... child of a Trachinian sire, Henceforth will take good care, from far away To look on Troy and Atreus' children twain. Yea, where the trickster lords it o'er the just, And goodness languishes and rascals rule, —Such courses I will nevermore endure. But rock-bound Scyros henceforth shall suffice To yield me full contentment in my home. Now, to my vessel! And thou, Poeas' child, Farewell, right ...
— The Seven Plays in English Verse • Sophocles

... Metternich, the inveterate trickster, does not appear to have had any serious thought of encouraging the project of making the Duke Emperor of the French. His subtle game was to use him as a terror to Louis Philippe when that monarch became refractory ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman

... girl, you're merely a smart trickster from the city—a turncoat who can't give one good excuse for being a ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day

... other birds. "We will have no such fellow for our king. Cheat and trickster he is, and he shall be punished. You shall be king, brave Eagle, for without your strength he could never have flown so high. It is you whom we want for our protector and lawmaker, not this sly fellow ...
— The Curious Book of Birds • Abbie Farwell Brown

... you know better than that. Can you imagine the great doctor the dupe of a mere trickster? The professor was a man of great science and was blessed with an almighty sound head. ...
— The Blind Spot • Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint

... now, unequivocally, that Governor Wells is a political trickster and a dishonest man. I have seen him myself, when I first came to this command, turn out all the Union men who had supported the Government, and put in their stead rebel soldiers who had not yet doffed their gray uniform. I have seen him again, during the ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan

... that uncle frequently had been mixed up in doubtful schemes, but always evaded detection. I began to doubt his morals, and finally concluded he had been a cruel, heartless trickster. ...
— Oswald Langdon - or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 • Carson Jay Lee

... part of it with honesty. I have no virtues—where should I have got them from, forsooth, in a life like mine? I mean I have no women's virtues; but I have one that is sometimes—not always—a man's. 'Tis that I am not a coward and a trickster, and keep my word when 'tis given. You fear that I shall lead my lord a bitter life of it. 'Twill not be so. He shall live smoothly, and not suffer from me. What he has paid for he shall honestly have. I will not cheat him as weaker ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... nothing is ever done to engineers. Engineering organizations in this regard are weak. The man's name should at least be posted, or, better still, published in the society's bulletin, so that the fraternity at large could know, and, knowing, could warn men with capital to invest—the trickster's especial ...
— Opportunities in Engineering • Charles M. Horton

... for the trickster," said L'Estrange to the Austrian prince. "The revenge of a farce on the ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... his soul. Of all injured vanities, that of the reproved buffoon is the most savage; and when grave issues are involved, these petty stabs become unbearable. But Gondremark was a man of iron; he showed nothing; he did not even, like the common trickster, retreat because he had presumed, but held to his point bravely. 'Madam,' he said, 'if, as you say, he prove exacting, we must take the bull ...
— Prince Otto • Robert Louis Stevenson

... state which had given him an honourable refuge, and brought disorder and bloodshed upon it. Between such contradictory statements, it is difficult to determine how much we should impute to the philosopher and how much to the trickster. In this uncertainty, the Pythagoreans reap the fruit of one of their favourite maxims, "Not unto all should all be made known." Perhaps at the bottom of these political movements lay the hope of establishing a central point of union for the numerous Greek colonies of ...
— History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) - Revised Edition • John William Draper

... playing prairie dog. It must have been very funny to see him sitting in the attitude of a begging dog, mutely appealing for something, and being obliged at last to suggest that there was candy on the top shelf. Even my heart would have softened for the innocent little trickster. ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson

... doubtest my word no longer," whispers Simon, quickly. "'Tis fear that makest thee halt,—the fear of finding thy wife a wanton and a trickster." ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett

... with becoming indignity; expressed his surprise at the consummate assurance of any trickster who would dare to offer him a contraband article, to the prejudice of His Majesty's revenue; and ordered the servant to turn the "scoundrel" out ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... hear us say: 'Gart is a bad man; Gart is a good-for-nothing, a city trickster?' No, we said: 'This thing has never happened here before,'" ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev

... that he's a skilful navigator, for I want no further recommendation. The way in which he, an old experienced hand, one who would be able to see at a glance how thoroughly I should be at his mercy if he were a trickster whose aim was to make as much money out of the transaction as he could, proved that he was as honest as the day and ready to lay himself open to every examination, that alone without his display ...
— The Ocean Cat's Paw - The Story of a Strange Cruise • George Manville Fenn

... tone. Then there was nothing else, nothing but Fagerolles' picture—an actress in front of her looking-glass painting her face. He had not mentioned it at first; but he now spoke of it with indignant laughter. What a trickster that Fagerolles was! Now that he had missed his prize he was no longer afraid to exhibit—he threw the School overboard; but you should have seen how skilfully he managed it, what compromises he effected, painting in a style which aped the audacity of truth without ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola

... forward the third charge, relating to the treatment of the begams of Oudh in a speech held by all who heard it to be a marvellous display of oratory. He described Hastings as "by turns a Dionysius and a Scapin," a tyrant and a trickster, with a mind in which "all was shuffling, ambiguous, dark, insidious, and little".[210] Indeed throughout the proceedings against Hastings his accusers constantly disregarded moderation and even decency of language. The third charge and other articles having been accepted by the commons, Burke, ...
— The Political History of England - Vol. X. • William Hunt

... examine into the question. In the stillness of the night he made a business of patrolling that portion of the principal Government edifice, and, sure enough, the footsteps followed along behind him. He cornered them; it was surely some trickster! There was no possibility for the joker to get away. But, a moment later, the steps were heard in another part of the hall; they had evaded him successfully. Similar experiments were tried on other nights, but they all ended in ...
— The Best Ghost Stories • Various

... Nature is both a trickster and a humorist and sets the will of the species beyond the discernment of the individual. The picador has to blindfold his horse in order to get him into the bull-ring, and likewise Dan Cupid exploits ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers • Elbert Hubbard

... beyond control by Balcarres's apologies and his hint of compromise. "If I had my way of it, every time-serving trickster in the land would have justice—a rope round his neck and a long drop, for a bullet would be too honorable a death. But let Athole pass. He was once a loyal man, and there may be reason in what ye say. I have never known sickness myself, and doubtless it weakens even ...
— Graham of Claverhouse • Ian Maclaren

... me, being, as her villainous countenance proved, one of the criminal class. The newspaper fell upon the floor, after apparently going through the figure, and there was a vacuum where it had been. I was not much shaken, however, although my theory of a human trickster dressed like a ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 4, April, 1891 • Various

... * * *. The trickster, I observe, has carefully reduced the pounds of cotton to cwts., in the hopes of concealing a great fraud to which he has condescended; taking, in the Whig year of 1841, the home consumption of cotton, whilst in Peel's year he gives entire importation as the home consumption, ...
— Lord George Bentinck - A Political Biography • Benjamin Disraeli

... he returned quietly. "Do you take me for a fool, Mackellar? Understand it once and for all, I treat this beast in my own way; fear nor favour shall not move me; and before I am hoodwinked, it will require a trickster less transparent than yourself. I ask service, loyal service; not that you should make and mar behind my back, and steal my own money ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. XII (of 25) - The Master of Ballantrae • Robert Louis Stevenson

... not from pedantic exaction of superfluous accuracy, but, on the contrary, from too conscientious a wish to escape the mistakes which language not rigorous is apt to occasion. So far from seeking to "pettifogulize"—i.e., to find evasions for any purpose in a trickster's minute tortuosities of construction—exactly in the opposite direction, from mere excess of sincerity, most unwillingly I found, in almost every body's words, an unintentional opening left for double interpretations. Undesigned equivocation prevails every where; [10] and it is not the ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... interest in the phases of life and human character. The fact is (at least) that we spent hours together daily, and that I was nearly as much on the forward deck as in the saloon. Yet all the while I could never forget he was a shabby trickster, embarked that very moment in a dirty enterprise. I used to tell myself at first that our acquaintance was a stroke of art, and that I was somehow fortifying Carthew. I told myself, I say; but I was no such fool as ...
— The Wrecker • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... threads attached to light articles, and thick cords to heavy articles, whereof no trace was found by witnesses who examined the volatile objects. An elaborate machinery of pulleys fixed in the ceiling, the presence of a trickster in a locked pantry, apparent errors in the account of the flight of the objects, and a number of accomplices, were all involved in this local explanation, the explainer admitting that he could not imagine why the tricks were played. Six or eight pounds' worth of goods ...
— The Making of Religion • Andrew Lang

... suggestion to bring about conviction and action without a basis of right and truth and in a bad cause, is to assume the terrible responsibility that must fall on the champion of error. Jesus scorned not to use suggestion so that he might move men to their benefit, but every vicious trickster has adopted the same means to reach base ends. Therefore honest men will examine well into their motives and into the truth of their cause, before seeking to influence ...
— The Art of Public Speaking • Dale Carnagey (AKA Dale Carnegie) and J. Berg Esenwein

... my labors, but your permission to return to Florence.' Hearing all this, the bishop, although heartily vexed, could not restrain his laughter; and the rather, as he remembered that he who was thus tricked by an ape, was himself the most incorrigible trickster in the world. However, when they had talked and laughed over this new occurrence to their hearts' content, the bishop persuaded Buonamico to remain; and the painter agreed to set himself to work for the third time, when the chapel was happily completed. But the ape, for his punishment, ...
— Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art, (Vol. 2 of 3) • Shearjashub Spooner

... the stone-couch by leaps and bounds. But while intent upon removing the stuff from Pao-y's face, she simultaneously ejaculated: "Master Tertius, are you still such a trickster! I'll tell you what, you'll never turn to any good account! Yet dame Chao should ever ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin

... that Hugo, after accepting the dedication of the Lost Illusions to himself, had induced Edouard Thierry to write an abusive article against him. "He is a great writer," said the novelist in telling this, "but he is a mean trickster." ...
— Balzac • Frederick Lawton

... many things to explain; too many things which seemed to connect her directly with the Rodaines; too many things which appeared to show that her sympathies were there and that she might only be a trickster in their hands, a trickster to trap him! Even the episode of the lawyer could be turned to this account. Had not another lawyer played the friendship racket, in an effort to buy the Blue ...
— The Cross-Cut • Courtney Ryley Cooper

... orthodoxy is owing to its clinging to the fallacy that the world's work is base, and Nature is a trickster luring us to our doom. Mrs. Eddy reconciled the old idea with the new and made it mentally palatable. And this is the reason why Christian Science is going to sweep the earth and in twenty years will have but one ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard

... heaven and hell, contrast That brave old jurist of the past And the cunning trickster and knave of courts Who the holy features of Truth distorts,— Ruling as right the will of the strong, Poverty, crime, and weakness wrong; Wide-eared to power, to the wronged and weak Deaf as Egypt's gods of leek; Scoffing aside at party's nod, Order of ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... keen mind was on the alert instantly. What was at the bottom of it all? Perhaps the man was not dead. Perhaps this was just a little trick of Druro's to slip the toils he felt closing round his liberty—her toils! Being a trickster herself, she easily suspected trickery in others. Rapidly she turned the thing over in her mind. She had no intention of involving herself with a man who had got to pay the penalty for committing a crime—but nothing simpler for her than to repudiate him if anything so unpleasant should really ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley

... energy, a splendid sincerity, the most loyal of Fernhurst's sons. And as Gordon looked his last at his old foe, he felt that "the Bull" was so essentially big, so strong, so noble of heart, that it hardly mattered what he worshipped. There hung round him no false trapping of the trickster; sincerity was the keynote of his life. Gordon would search in vain, perhaps, for a brighter lodestar. As two vessels that have journeyed a little way together down a river, on taking their different courses at the ocean mouth, signal one another "good luck," so Gordon ...
— The Loom of Youth • Alec Waugh

... are for a trickster who cheated you into loving him. Listen, now, and I, who have never lied, even to win you, will show him to ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves



Words linked to "Trickster" :   slyboots, deceiver, trick, imposter, finagler, mischief-maker, double-dealer, straw man, front man, front, falsifier, strawman, pseudo, tricker, charlatan, sandbagger, phony, steerer, two-timer, hypocrite, chiseller, fake, fortune hunter, troubler, impersonator, hoaxer, prevaricator, swindler, counterfeiter, fox, cut-up, faker, liar, cheat, decoy, misleader, obscurantist, spiritual being, gouger, embezzler, bluffer, impostor, peculator, pretender, dodger, trouble maker, bad hat, beguiler, imitator, defalcator, grifter, figurehead, forger, phoney, wangler, mountebank, slicker, scammer, sham, defrauder, utterer, practical joker, chiseler, wrongdoer, dissembler, fraud, troublemaker, double-crosser, supernatural being, pseud, four-flusher, nominal head, role player, dissimulator, prankster, offender, shammer, betrayer, traitor



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