trice

On 15 July 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 probe sent back grainy images of Mars, revealing a forbidding surface that destroyed florid Victorian speculation in a trice.

From Nature ● Jan. 7, 2019

We’d hired someone to help us sort through our belongings—keep it, sell it, give it away—Patty could get rid of anything in a trice.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2018

He was maybe three feet from the net, but somehow, in a trice, managed to extend his left arm sideways and tilt his racquet head down toward his thighs.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 30, 2016

You saw the dancer, and then in a trice you heard the music; but seven years ago this aspect of Balanchine dancing had virtually slipped away.

From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2015

My fingers could travel the distance in a trice.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

At midday, we triced up our boarding-nettings and made clear for action, with our courses up.

From Privateers and Privateering by Statham, E. P.

I slipped down on deck, quick as lightning, triced up the main tack just high enough to enable me to see under the foot of the sail; and squared dead away before the wind.

From The Secret of the Sands The "Water Lily" and her Crew by Collingwood, Harry

Then we triced it up, and felt that at last we were ready for whatever the fates—and the natives—might have in store for us.

From Turned Adrift by Hodgson, Edward S.

The Serapis now triced up her lower-deck ports, showing two complete batteries, besides her spar deck, lighted up for action, and making a most formidable appearance.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14 by Various

He attacked her gallantly, but she was heavily armed and strongly manned, and, before he could venture to run alongside, had triced up her boarding nettings.

From Notable Voyagers From Columbus to Nordenskiold by Kingston, William Henry Giles

“I’ll rig up a whip from the foreyard and we can let down a hammock for ’em, tricing up one at a time.”

From The Ghost Ship A Mystery of the Sea by Austin, Henry

If there are, we will reeve and bend the tricing lines at once, and see all clear for tricing up the nets.”

From A Middy in Command A Tale of the Slave Squadron by Hodgson, Edward S.

In a moment, cutting the tricing lines of her boarding nettings, they sprang up her side and threw themselves on the deck.

From True Blue by Kingston, William Henry Giles

Her crew were tricing up the boarding-netting, dragging round the starboard guns, knocking new portholes for them, and making every preparation for a desperate resistance.

From The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir

A chain or plate fastened by a screw, to secure a vessel's bowsprit to the stem-head, allowing for the tricing up of the bowsprit when required.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir