trip

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
trip/trɪp/

▶verb (trips, tripping, tripped)

• 1 catch one's foot on something and stumble or fall.

• 2 (trip up) make a mistake.

  ■ (trip someone up) detect or expose someone in a mistake or inconsistency.

• 3 walk, run, or dance with quick light steps.

  ■ (of words) flow lightly and easily: a name which trips off the tongue.

• 4 activate (a mechanism), especially by contact with a switch.

  ■ (of part of an electric circuit) disconnect automatically as a safety measure.

• 5 Nautical release and raise (an anchor) from the seabed by means of a cable.

  ■ turn (a yard or other object) from a horizontal to a vertical position for lowering.

• 6 informal experience hallucinations induced by taking a psychedelic drug, especially LSD.

• 7 go on a short journey.

▶noun

• 1 a journey or excursion, especially for pleasure.

• 2 an instance of tripping.

• 3 informal a hallucinatory experience caused by taking a psychedelic drug.

  ■ a self-indulgent attitude or activity: a power trip.

• 4 a device that trips a mechanism, circuit, etc.

• 5 archaic a light, lively movement of a person's feet.

– phrases
trip the light fantastic humorous dance. [from ‘Trip it as you go On the light fantastic toe’ (Milton's L'Allegro).]

– origin ME: from OFr. triper, from MDu. trippen ‘to skip, hop’.