parlor trick

noun

variants US parlor trick or British parlour trick

plural parlor tricks

: a usually simple trick or demonstration that is used especially to entertain or amuse guests

… this book … includes classic parlor tricks such as piercing a balloon with a needle without popping it, and yanking a tablecloth out from under bottles and plates.

—Dolly Setton

—sometimes used figuratively

Their game is an illusion, a political parlor trick: Hold down funding for key priorities, such as K-12 education, or universities, and then when revenues create a surplus, call it an "overpayment" by taxpayers.

—Mike Owen

Methods of reporting change, and with the fierce competition of the Internet age, many reporters have resorted to ambush journalism or other parlor tricks.

—David Yas

Examples of parlor trick in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But Musgraves doesn’t need those sort of parlor tricks to put her songs across. —Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 28 Sep. 2024

These solo shows included parlor tricks (such as underwater eating, drinking, and writing), demonstrations of underwater agility (such as flips and contortions), and feats of endurance (such as extreme breath-holding)—not to mention gliding around the tank looking beautiful. —Sophia Stewart, The Atlantic, 21 June 2024

The irony is that the very moment the danger becomes real for Jack — when his seemingly harmless trifling with the darkness stops being just for show — is also the fakest moment of the film, a mere parlor trick itself. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2024

The findings have meaning that go beyond canine parlor tricks, opening up the possibility of virtual human-dog communications, serving to entertain the animals and provide emotional support to human companions. —Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 5 June 2024

Balance, of course, is a journalistic parlor trick. —Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2024

Earmarks are just a legislative parlor trick that allows individual members of Congress to mandate spending on specific projects, which often – but not always – benefit their cronies or some special interest. —Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 15 Feb. 2024

The book thrums with a newfound pessimism; Ariely seems to have lost faith in his old parlor tricks. —Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2023

These experiments are more than just fancy parlor tricks. —Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 19 Sep. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined above