bag of tricks
English
Etymology
An allusion to the collection of props and devices used by a magician.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Noun
bag of tricks (plural bags of tricks)
- (idiomatic) A set of skills, techniques, items of information, or other resources used to help achieve professional or personal goals.
- 1909, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 13, in The Silver Horde:
- "When the time comes I'll go down in the little bag of tricks and dig up anything you need, from a jig dance to a jimmy and a bottle of soup."
- 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in Right Ho, Jeeves:
- I was expecting the tearful ticking off, the girlish recriminations and all the rest of the bag of tricks along those lines.
- 1993 March 25, Mike Freeman, "Pro Basketball: Nets Win as Coleman Does His Superman Act," New York Times (retrieved 3 Sep. 2011):
- Daly went to his bag of tricks and found, what else, a way to win.
- 2002 Oct. 21, Sora Song, "Body of Evidence," Time:
- But investigators have a hefty bag of tricks to expose them—powder, chemicals, lasers and lights.
- (idiomatic, dated, often preceded by whole) A collection of items, especially as constituting a very complete set of such items.
- 1908, Jerome K. Jerome, "I Had A Vexing Dream One Night" in The Angel and the Author; and Others:
- Instead of to the credit side of my account he had put the whole bag of tricks to my debit.
- 1922, John Buchan, chapter 7, in Huntingtower:
- When it was built fifteen years ago it was considered a model—six bathrooms, its own electric light plant, steam heating, and independent boiler for hot water, the whole bag of tricks.
- 1908, Jerome K. Jerome, "I Had A Vexing Dream One Night" in The Angel and the Author; and Others:
Synonyms
- (very complete collection of items): the works, whole ball of wax
References
- “bag of tricks”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.