Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A suit in card games that outranks all other suits for the duration of a hand.
  • noun A card of such a suit.
  • noun A trump card.
  • noun A key resource to be used at an opportune moment.
  • noun Informal A reliable or admirable person.
  • intransitive verb Games To take (a card or trick) with a trump.
  • intransitive verb To get the better of (an adversary or competitor, for example) by using a crucial, often hidden resource.
  • intransitive verb To play a trump.
  • noun A trumpet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To blow a trumpet.
  • To impose upon; dupe; deceive; gull.
  • To obtrude or impose unfairly.
  • To put a trump-card upon; take with a trump.
  • In card-playing, to play a trumpcard when another suit has been led.
  • noun One card of that suit which for the time being outranks the other suits, and which is generally determined by turning up the last card in dealing, but in some games by choice or otherwise; also, the suit which thus outranks the others (a loose use, for the plural trumps).
  • noun An old game at cards, also called ruff (see ruff), the original of the modern game of whist. See triumph, 7.
  • noun A person upon whom one can depend; one who spontaneously does the right thing in any emergency; a good fellow.
  • noun A tube; pipe.
  • noun A musical wind-instrument; a trumpet: as, the trump of doom; the last trump (the summons to final judgment).
  • noun A trumpeter; a herald. See trumpet, 3.
  • noun A jews'-harp.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To play a trump card when one of another suit has been led.
  • noun A wind instrument of music; a trumpet, or sound of a trumpet; -- used chiefly in Scripture and poetry.
  • transitive verb To play a trump card upon; to take with a trump card.
  • transitive verb obsolete To trick, or impose on; to deceive.
  • transitive verb To impose unfairly; to palm off.
  • transitive verb to devise; to collect with unfairness; to fabricate; as, to trump up a charge.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To blow a trumpet.
  • noun A winning card; one of a particular suit (usually determined by chance for each deal) any card of which takes any card of the other suits.
  • noun An old game with cards, nearly the same as whist; -- called also ruff.
  • noun Slang A good fellow; an excellent person.
  • noun to force to the last expedient, or to the utmost exertion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US, singular, card games The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.
  • noun UK, in the plural, card games The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.
  • noun card games A playing card of that suit.
  • noun figuratively Something that gives one an advantage, especially one held in reserve.
  • noun colloquial An excellent person; a fine fellow, a good egg.
  • verb transitive (card games) To play a trump (on a card of another suit).
  • verb intransitive (card games) To play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump
  • verb transitive To get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.
  • verb transitive To supersede.
  • verb intransitive (UK) To flatulate.
  • noun obsolete A trumpet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a playing card in the suit that has been declared trumps
  • verb proclaim or announce with or as if with a fanfare
  • verb get the better of
  • noun a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of triumph.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English trompe, from Old French; see trumpet.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly from Italian trionfi (triumph(s)).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English trompe "trumpet" from Old French trompe "horn, trump, trumpet", from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba "trumpet". Akin to Old High German trumpa, trumba "horn, trumpet", Middle Dutch tromme "drum", Middle Low German trumme "drum". More at trumpet, drum.

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Examples

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  • All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump; the captain begged his pardon.

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 13

    July 24, 2008

  • See jaw harp.

    January 30, 2010