In a trice

Meaning

In a single moment, with no delay.

Origin

Trice is no longer in general use, but might have worked out that it means 'a very short period of time' from the phrase 'in a trice'. That seems reasonable, as the phrase is the only place we are now likely ever to come across the word. That's not the original meaning of 'trice' though - it had a more specific meaning, which was 'at a single pull'. This derived from the name given in the 14th century to a nautical windlass or pulley (variously 'tryse', 'tryce', 'trise' or 'trice') - hence the 'single pull' meaning.

The phrase was first recorded, in the 15th century, in the form 'at a trice'. For example, in the verse The lyfe of Ipomydon, 1440:

The howndis... Pluckid downe dere all at a tryse. [The hounds... plucked down deer all at a trice]

The first recording of the 'in a trice' version of the phrase is in John Skelton's Poetical Works, 1508:

To tell you what conceyte I had than in a tryce, The matter were to nyse.