turn the trick

turn the trick

To do, accomplish, or fulfill exactly what is needed or sought after. The recipe calls for pancetta ham, but I think this regular bacon should turn the trick. The movie's plot, such as it is, won't go on to win any awards, but the gory special effects will turn the trick for any fans of the horror genre.
See also: trick, turn
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • do the trick
  • group
  • a committee is a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours
  • carry through on (something)
  • come through (something) with flying colors
  • pass with flying colors
  • pass with flying colours
  • rush around like a blue-arsed fly
  • beat to the punch/draw
  • coming through
References in periodicals archive
29 at Cincinnati, making him the fifth player to turn the trick twice in one season -- and first in Brewers history.
It is a looong shot, but the combination of the letter and our prayers may turn the trick. After all, we don't need all eight justices to change their mind; two will do.
Hastings already has warned it will take longer than that to see black from Netflix's European and Latin American forays, and there's no reason to think the next markets will turn the trick any faster.
This week the answer to who was the last Sun Devil QB to turn the trick should be easier to divine because: a) he set the conference record that still stands for passing yards in a game (536) against Oregon at Autzen Stadium in 2002 as a sophomore, and b) he might be the only Pac-12/10/8 quarterback to beat the Ducks three straight times since at least the Rich Brooks era.
The big question: will today's rates turn the trick?
Godolphin outsmarted Aidan O'Brien on that occasion, but they also possibly gave him the stencil to turn the trick on Sea The Stars today.
Louis Cardinals being the latest to turn the trick in 1979.
While a bullet that reaches the heart or perforates both lungs will kill a buffalo, these big animals are so strong and so tenacious that even a perfectly placed shot from an adequate cartridge may not turn the trick quite as rapidly as you think it should.
A soft introductory remark can often turn the trick: "As you may know..." "Let me refresh your memory..."
The history of Western civilization can thus be viewed as a series of successive, ever more elaborate attempts to turn the trick of representation: to make things present again through depiction or description, through art or science.
From time to time, one buys a new turnip to replace the old one, and that seems to turn the trick: "Allons chez le primeur / puis chez l'imprimeur." Speaking of that latter figure, it should be remarked that POL's publication of this vast collection is a bold, truly stunning gesture that renders a remarkable service to French poetry and to all those who read it, just when we were beginning to believe that nobody cared.
However, Hamilton, Ontario has been able to turn the trick. After the near meltdown of the local steel giants Stelco and Dofasco, the city has bounced back to life.
But how could DNA turn the trick? It was composed of chains of four different nucleotides, while enzymes, which were proteins, were composed of chains of twenty different amino acids.
The business is predicated upon various levels of co-operation and the field service staff has to turn the trick of being able to get the service expertly delivered while essentially remaining transparent to the management of the individual supermarkets.
New York Times' Charles Isherwood wrote that the show "seems content to do the old steps in the old style, on the assumption that sentimengal escapism presented with gusto and polish can turn the trick one more time."