turn tricks

English

Verb

turn tricks (third-person singular simple present turns tricks, present participle turning tricks, simple past and past participle turned tricks)

1. (slang, intransitive) To work as a prostitute, providing sexual services for money.
   • 2004 March 21, Kevin Fagan, “The Homeless: Desperate search for Bridget—sister, mother, addict”, in San Francisco Chronicle‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 September 2004:

     By 1996, she was a hooker sleeping in the streets or at ratty hotels in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, turning tricks to get her next bag of heroin.

   • 2006, Steve Niles, Jeff Mariotte, 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead, page 307:

     They were turning tricks, doing drugs, and generally little better off than they had been before, except that they were keeping more of their money. But they seemed lonely, too, without the company of their pimp and the rest of his string.

   • 2010, Jennifer Egan, “Ask Me if I Care”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

     […] two sisters we always see at the club have started turning tricks to pay for heroin.

Synonyms

• sell one's body, turn a trick; see also Thesaurus:prostitute oneself

Derived terms

• trick turner

See also

• turn the trick