TRICKSTER

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does trickster mean? 

• TRICKSTER (noun)
  The noun TRICKSTER has 3 senses:

1. someone who plays practical jokes on others

2. someone who leads you to believe something that is not true

3. a mischievous supernatural being found in the folklore of many primitive people; sometimes distinguished by prodigious biological drives and exaggerated bodily parts

  Familiarity information: TRICKSTER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRICKSTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who plays practical jokes on others

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

cut-up; hoaxer; practical joker; prankster; tricker; trickster

Hypernyms ("trickster" is a kind of...):

bad hat; mischief-maker; trouble maker; troublemaker; troubler (someone who deliberately stirs up trouble)

Derivation:

trick (a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who leads you to believe something that is not true

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster

Hypernyms ("trickster" is a kind of...):

offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "trickster"):

figurehead; front; front man; nominal head; straw man; strawman (a person used as a cover for some questionable activity)

utterer (someone who circulates forged banknotes or counterfeit coins)

two-timer (someone who deceives a lover or spouse by carrying on a sexual relationship with somebody else)

sandbagger (someone who deceives you about his true nature or intent in order to take advantage of you)

obscurantist (a person who is deliberately vague)

charlatan; mountebank (a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes)

misleader (someone who leads astray (often deliberately))

liar; prevaricator (a person who has lied or who lies repeatedly)

fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer (a person who makes deceitful pretenses)

imitator; impersonator (someone who (fraudulently) assumes the appearance of another)

dissembler; dissimulator; hypocrite; phoney; phony; pretender (a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives)

bluffer; four-flusher (a person who tries to bluff other people)

fortune hunter (a person who seeks wealth through marriage)

counterfeiter; forger (someone who makes copies illegally)

finagler; wangler (a deceiver who uses crafty misleading methods)

falsifier (someone who falsifies)

defalcator; embezzler; peculator (someone who violates a trust by taking (money) for his own use)

betrayer; double-crosser; double-dealer; traitor; two-timer (a person who says one thing and does another)

dodger; fox; slyboots (a shifty deceptive person)

decoy; steerer (a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot))

chiseler; chiseller; defrauder; gouger; grifter; scammer; swindler (a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud)

Derivation:

trick (a cunning or deceitful action or device)

trick (an attempt to get you to do something foolish or imprudent)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A mischievous supernatural being found in the folklore of many primitive people; sometimes distinguished by prodigious biological drives and exaggerated bodily parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("trickster" is a kind of...):

spiritual being; supernatural being (an incorporeal being believed to have powers to affect the course of human events)

 Context examples 

I know Mercury retrograde can be frustrating, but we are all in the same boat with the trickster’s delays and miscommunications.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

In his new book launched today (November 26) titled Ea’s Duplicity in the Gilgamesh Flood story, he explores the tricks of ‘wily Ea’, who is also known as the ‘crafty god’ and the ‘trickster god’.

(‘Trickster god’ used fake news in Babylonian Noah story, University of Cambridge)