a bag of tricks

bag of tricks

1. The items that one has available for use. The phrase originally referred to the items a magician would use for magic tricks. Let's see what I have in my bag of tricks to entertain the baby.
2. The skills that one has available for use. Our new pitcher has a killer fastball in her bag of tricks. She's an ace negotiator, so you know she has a few more surprises in her bag of tricks.
See also: bag, of, trick

a bag (or whole bag) of tricks

a set of ingenious plans, techniques, or resources. informal
See also: bag, of, trick

a bag/box of ˈtricks

(informal) a set of methods or equipment that somebody can use: Hotel managers are using a whole new bag of tricks to attract their guests.
See also: bag, box, of, trick
References in periodicals archive ?
To help overcome these challenges, Andrew Gelman (Professor of Statistics and Professor of Political Science and Director of the Applied Sciences Center at Columbia University) and Deborah Nolan (Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley), have put together "Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks".
Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks
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