cantrip
A spell or incantationA spell or incantation; a trifling magic trick.
Meaning
3 sensesA spell or incantation; a trifling magic trick.
A wilful piece of trickery or mischief.
A minor spell, typically one that can be cast without preparation.
Origin
From Middle Scots cantrip, cantrap (“a magic charm; a trick”). Further origin obscure, butFrom Middle Scots cantrip, cantrap (“a magic charm; a trick”). Further origin obscure, but likely a corruption of Scottish Gaelic canntaireachd (identical to Irish cantaireacht), referring to a system of musical notation consisting of a series of otherwise meaningless syllables memorised by pipers in learning their tunes; this was then used similarly to abracadabra. Regardless of details, ultimately derived from Latin cantō (“to sing, chant, play an instrument”).
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Forms
plural: cantripsSynonyms
19 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.