trump

Etymology 1

Possibly from French triomphe (“triumph”) or Old French triumphe. If so, it is a doublet of triumph and thriambus. Compare German Trumpf.

noun

1. (card games) The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.
   Diamonds were declared trump(s).
   And now her Heart with Pleasure jumps, She scarce remembers what is Trumps. 1730, Jonathan Swift, “Death And Daphne,”, in Some Verse Pieces
2. (card games) A playing card of that suit.
   He played an even higher trump.
3. (figurative) Something that gives one an advantage, especially one held in reserve.
4. (colloquial, now rare) An excellent person; a fine fellow, a good egg.
   [W]e permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON. 1838, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois”, in The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, archived from the original on 2013-02-05
5. An old card game, almost identical to whist; the game of ruff.
   There be many one that breaketh this carde,[…]and playeth there with oftentimes at the blinde trompe, wherby they be no winners but great losers c. 1529, Hugh Latimer, Sermons on the Card
6. A card of the major arcana of the tarot.

verb

1. (transitive, card games) To play on (a card of another suit) with a trump.
   He knew the hand was lost when his ace was trumped.
2. (intransitive, card games) To play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump.
3. (transitive) To get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.
   to trick or trump mankind , Act 1, Scene 3
4. (transitive, dated) To impose unfairly; to palm off.
   Authors have been trumped upon us. 1699, Charles Leslie, A Short and Easy Method with the Deists
5. (transitive) To supersede.
   In this election, it would seem issues of national security trumped economic issues.
6. (transitive) To outweigh; be stronger, greater, bigger than or in other way superior to.

Etymology 2

From Middle English trumpe, trompe (“trumpet”) from Old French trompe (“horn, trump, trumpet”), from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba (“trumpet”), from a common Germanic word of imitative origin. Doublet of tulumba and tromp. Akin to Old High German trumpa, trumba (“horn, trumpet”), Middle Dutch tromme (“drum”), Middle Low German trumme (“drum”). More at trumpet, drum.

noun

1. (archaic) A trumpet.
   Sound, sound the trump of fame, 1798, Joseph Hopkinson, Hail, Columbia
2. (UK, euphemistic, slang) Flatulence.
3. The noise made by an elephant through its trunk.

verb

1. To blow a trumpet.
2. (intransitive, UK, euphemistic, slang) To flatulate.
   And without warning me, as he lay there, he suddenly trumped next to me in bed.
   Who trumped?

Etymology 3

Shortening of Jew's-trump, which may be from French jeu-trump, jeu tromp, jeu trompe (a trump, or toy, to play with).

noun

1. (dated, music) Synonym of Jew's harp.