cantrip

To fellow brokers downstairs on the floor of the Stock Exchange he had merely whispered the compelling cantrip of the bulls: "I've got a good thing!"

From Time Magazine Archive

Well, this sort of cantrip was 'common form,' as we say at the Bar, in Hollond's Space, and he was very curious about the why and wherefore of Sleep.

From The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies by John Buchan

As Waverley passed him, he pulled off his hat respectfully, and approaching his stirrup, bade him 'Tak heed the auld Whig deevil played him nae cantrip.'

From Waverley: or, 'Tis sixty years since by Sir Walter Scott

Then mystic knots mak great abuse, On young guidman, fond, keen, and crouse, When the best wark-lume i' the house, By cantrip wit, Is instant made no worth a louse, Just at the bit.

From The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together With Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales by James Grant

By some "cantrip slight," it had no doubt brought her there to be ready in case of accidents, and it now left her to be caught in its stead.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 11 by John Mackay Wilson