Tryst

//tɹɪst// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A prearranged meeting or assignation, now especially between lovers to meet at a specific place and time.

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

  2. 2
    a secret rendezvous (especially between lovers) wordnet
  3. 3
    A mutual agreement, a covenant. obsolete
  4. 4
    a date; usually with a member of the opposite sex wordnet
  5. 5
    A market fair, especially a recurring one held on a schedule, where livestock sales took place. Scotland, historical
Verb
  1. 1
    To make a tryst; to agree to meet at a place. intransitive
  2. 2
    To arrange or appoint (a meeting time etc.). transitive
  3. 3
    To keep a tryst, to meet at an agreed place and time. intransitive

    "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?'"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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).

Etymology 2

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).

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