tryst

From Middle English tryst, trist, from Old French triste, tristre (“waiting place, appointed station in hunting”), probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse treysta (“to make safe, secure”), from traust (“confidence, trust, security, help, shelter, safe abode”), from Proto-Germanic *traustą (“trust, shelter”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru-, *dreu-, *drū- (“to be firm, be solid”). Doublet of trust (which see).

• IPA^(key): /tɹɪst/, /tɹaɪst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪst, -aɪst

tryst (plural trysts)

1. A prearranged meeting or assignation, now especially between lovers to meet at a specific place and time.
   • 1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivien”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VI), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 23:

     And Vivien, like the tenderest-hearted maid / That ever bided tryst at village stile, / Made answer, either eyelid wet with tears: […]

   • 1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961, page 6:

     A silence supreme and altogether European. Shutters drawn, shops barred. A red glow here and there to mark a tryst.

   • 2004, Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life, page 11:

     But, for the most part, we shall mark our progress to the dawn of life by the measure of those 40 natural milestones, the trysts that enrich our pilgrimage.

   • 2005, Julian Baggini, The Pig that Wants to be Eaten: And 99 other thought experiments, №91: “No one gets hurt”, page 271 (Granta; →ISBN, 9781862078550)

     If someone trusts you, what is lost if you betray that trust? As Scarlett is tempted to see it, sometimes nothing at all. If her husband remains ignorant of her tryst, then his trust in her will remain intact. ‘No one gets hurt’ runs her reasoning, so why not go ahead?

2. (obsolete) A mutual agreement, a covenant.
3. (Scotland, historical) A market fair, especially a recurring one held on a schedule, where livestock sales took place.

   Coordinate terms: fair, mart, market, farmers' market

tryst (third-person singular simple present trysts, present participle trysting, simple past and past participle trysted)

1. (intransitive) To make a tryst; to agree to meet at a place.
2. (transitive) To arrange or appoint (a meeting time etc.).
3. (intransitive) To keep a tryst, to meet at an agreed place and time.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     He said he was jealous, and craved something to ease his care. 'It's but a small thing I ask,' says he, 'but it will make me a happy man, and nothing ever shall come atween us. Tryst wi' me for Beltane's E'en on the Sker sands, at the green link o' the burn where the sands begin, on the ebb o' the tide when midnight is by, but afore cockcrow. For,' said he, 'that was our forbears' tryst for true lovers, and wherefore no for you and me?'

• RTTYs