Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search



trade-last (plural trade-lasts)

  1. (US) A compliment heard about another person, offered to be repeated to that person in exchange for another repeated compliment about the speaker.
    Synonym: (initialism) TL
    • 1979, Robert Kirk Mueller, Board Compass (page 102)
      American adolescents regularly deal in "trade-lasts," compliments in exchange for another. They will tell you something flattering about yourself after you tell them a flattering remark you have heard about them.
    • 1997, Joan Mellen, Hellman and Hammett (page 71)
      So autobiographical was The Children's Hour that there are even “TL's” between the children, those “trade lasts” in which people must come up with compliments they have heard about each other, a game which amused Lily []