Trip Meaning
/tɹɪp/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA journey; an excursion or jaunt.
nounA stumble or misstep.
Sentence Examples
Round trip? Only one-way.
This will be a good souvenir of my trip around the United States.
Did you have a good trip?
CEFR Practice Quiz
He packed his bags last week and took a ____ to Paris for vacation.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
They are planning a long ____ to the mountains of South America to explore the ancient ruins of the Inca empire today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English trippen (“tread or step lightly and nimbly, skip, dance”), perhaps from Old French triper (“to hop or dance around, strike with the feet”), from a Frankish source; or alternatively from Middle Dutch trippen (“to skip, trip, hop, stamp, trample”) (> Modern Dutch trippelen (“to toddle, patter, trip”)). Akin to Middle Low German trippen ( > Danish trippe (“to trip”), Swedish trippa (“to mince, trip”)), West Frisian tripje (“to toddle, trip”), German trippeln (“to scurry”), Old English treppan (“to trample, tread”). Related also to trap, tramp.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I sold my horse and took a trip to Ceylon and back on an Orient boat as a passenger,"
— 1918, Ralph Henry Barbour, Lost Island:
"We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"Imperfect words, with childish trips."
— 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:
"Each seeming trip, and each digressive start."
— 1767, Walter Harte, The amaranth; or, Religious poems:
"Unlike other accepted stimuli, from nicotine to liquor, the hallucinogens promise those who take the “trip” a magic-carpet escape from dull reality in which perceptions are heightened, sense distorted, and the imagination permanently bedazzled with ecstatic visions of teleological verity."
— 1967, Joe David Brown, editor, The Hippies, New York: Time, Inc, page 2:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He packed his bags last week and took a ____ to Paris for vacation.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
They are planning a long ____ to the mountains of South America to explore the ancient ruins of the Inca empire today.