trump

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See also: Trump

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Possibly from French triomphe (“triumph”) or Old French triumphe. If so, it is a doublet of triumph and thriambus. Compare German Trumpf.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

trump (plural trumps)

  1. (card games) The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.
    Diamonds were declared trump(s).
    • 1730, Jonathan Swift, “Death And Daphne,”, in Some Verse Pieces:
      And now her Heart with Pleasure jumps,
      She scarce remembers what is Trumps.
  2. (card games) A playing card of that suit.
    He played an even higher trump.
  3. (figuratively) Something that gives one an advantage, especially one held in reserve.
  4. (colloquial, now rare) An excellent person; a fine fellow, a good egg.
  5. An old card game, almost identical to whist; the game of ruff.
    • c. 1529, Hugh Latimer, Sermons on the Card:
      There be many one that breaketh this carde, […] and playeth there with oftentimes at the blinde trompe, wherby they be no winners but great losers
    • 1598, John Florio, “Trump”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount, →OCLC:
      Trionfo, […] also a trump at cards, or the play called trump or ruff.
  6. A card of the major arcana of the tarot.
Usage notes
  • For the top-ranking suit as a whole, American usage favors the singular trump and British usage the plural trumps.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

trump (third-person singular simple present trumps, present participle trumping, simple past and past participle trumped)

  1. (transitive, card games) To play on (a card of another suit) with a trump.
    He knew the hand was lost when his ace was trumped.
  2. (intransitive, card games) To play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump.
  3. (transitive) To get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.
    • 1629 (first performance), B[en] Jonson, The New Inne. Or, The Light Heart. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Thomas Alchorne, […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      , Act 1, Scene 3
      to trick or trump mankind
    • 2011, Leo Hollis, The Phoenix
      Wren, who had hoped to make his name with his discovery, immediately put De Corpore aside, hoping that in silence his failure would disappear. He was forced to think again about his future and resolved to seek new territory within the New Philosophy which he could call his own, rather than face the embarrassment of being trumped for a second time.
  4. (transitive, dated) To impose unfairly; to palm off.
    • 1699, Charles Leslie, A Short and Easy Method with the Deists:
      Authors have been trumped upon us.
  5. (transitive) To supersede.
    In this election, it would seem issues of national security trumped economic issues.
  6. (transitive) To outweigh; be stronger, greater, bigger than or in other way superior to.
Synonyms
  • (to play a trump card on another suit): ruff
  • (to get the better of a competitor): outsmart
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English trumpe, trompe (“trumpet”), from Old French trompe (“horn, trump, trumpet”), from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba (“trumpet”), from a common Germanic word of imitative origin. Doublet of tulumba and tromp.

Akin to Old High German trumpa, trumba (“horn, trumpet”), Middle Dutch tromme (“drum”), Middle Low German trumme (“drum”). More at trumpet, drum.

Noun

trump (plural trumps)

  1. (archaic) A trumpet.
  2. (UK, dialect, euphemistic) A fart.
  3. The noise made by an elephant through its trunk.
Derived terms

Verb

trump (third-person singular simple present trumps, present participle trumping, simple past and past participle trumped)

  1. To blow a trumpet.
  2. (intransitive, UK, euphemistic, slang) To flatulate.
    And without warning me, as he lay there, he suddenly trumped next to me in bed.
    Who trumped?

Etymology 3

Shortening of Jew's-trump, which may be from French jeu-trump, jeu tromp, jeu trompe (a trump, or toy, to play with).

Noun

trump (plural trumps)

  1. (dated, music) Synonym of Jew's harp.

Further reading

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