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trap¹ Definition

trap (trap)

noun

  1. any device for catching animals, as one that snaps shut tightly when stepped on, or a pitfall; gin, snare, etc.
  2. any stratagem or ambush designed to catch or trick unsuspecting persons
  3. any of various devices for preventing the escape of gas, offensive odors, etc.; specif., a -shaped or -shaped part of a drainpipe, in which standing water seals off sewer gas
  4. an apparatus for throwing disks into the air to be shot at in trapshooting
  5. a light, two-wheeled carriage with springs
  6. trapdoor
  7. ☆
    1. a set of various percussion instruments, as cymbals, blocks, and bells, used with a set of drums, as in a jazz band
    2. these percussion instruments and the set of drums considered as a unit
  8. Slang the mouth, specif. as the organ of speech
  9. Golf sand trap

Etymology: ME trappe < OE træppe, akin to treppan, to step, Ger treppe, stairway < IE *dreb-, to run, step, trip (var. of base *drā-) > Pol drabina, ladder

transitive verb trapped, trap′·ping

  1. to catch in or as in a trap; entrap
  2. to hold back or seal off by a trap
  3. to furnish with a trap or traps
  4. ☆ to catch (a batted ball in baseball or a thrown ball in football) just as it rebounds from the ground rather than just before it strikes the ground

intransitive verb

  1. to set traps for game
  2. ☆ to trap animals, esp. for their furs

trap² Definition

trap (trap)

noun

  1. any of several dark-colored, usually fine-grained, extrusive igneous rocks; esp., such a rock, as basalt, used in road making
  2. a geologic structure forming a reservoir enclosing an accumulation of oil or gas

Etymology: Swed trapp < trappa, stair (akin to trap), in reference to its appearance

trap³ Definition

trap (trap)

transitive verb trapped, trap′·ping

to cover, equip, or adorn with trappings; caparison

Etymology: ME trappen < trappe, trappings < OFr drap, cloth: see drape

noun

  1. Obsolete an ornamental covering for a horse
  2. Informal a person's clothes, personal belongings, etc.

trap Synonyms

trap

n.

  1. A device to catch game or persons

    net, cul-de-sac, snare, mousetrap, deadfall, spring, pit, pitfall, blind, noose, trapfall, maneuver; see also ambush.

  2. A trick

    prank, practical joke, snare; see trick 1.

trap, as applied to a device for capturing animals, specif. suggests a snapping device worked by a spring, pitfall, a concealed pit with a collapsible cover, and snare, a noose which jerks tight upon the release of a trigger; in extended senses, these words apply to any danger into which unsuspecting or unwary persons may fall, trap specifically suggesting a deliberate stratagem or ambush a speed trap, pitfall, a concealed danger, source of error, etc. the pitfalls of the law, and snare, enticement and entanglement the snares of love

trap Synonyms

trap

v.

ensnare, catch, confine, fool; see ambush, catch 2, deceive. See syn. study at catch.

trap Usage Examples

Object

  • booby: He has booby trapped the dams on Iraq's two great rivers and he may have done the same to Iraq's oilfields.
  • moisture: The presence of the paint, etc on the walls will simply trap the moisture.
  • bubble: There is a small air bubble trapped inside the ketchup packet.
  • miner: The Hartley Bank Disaster ( 1862 ) saw miners trapped underground when their one entrance/exit shaft was blocked.

Converse of object

  • beat: Danny Thornton beat the offside trap to give Shelf an interval lead.
  • escape: They find him just in time to help him escape the trap that's been set.
  • avoid: Avoid the trap of trying to cover too much ground.
  • lay: But you must judge accurately and watch out for any trap possibly laid by your opponent.

Adjective modifier

  • particulate: With a diesel particulate trap, particle mass and accumulation mode particles were reduced by several orders of magnitude.

Modifies a noun

  • source-interface: Gibt es ein Weg die Quelladress die SNMP Paketen zu zwingen, ähnlich wie der trap source-interface Kommand?
  • door: All cast members who have to make an entrance or exit through the trap door were given time to practice in their costumes.
  • moisture: Allows wood to breathe - will not trap moisture.

Noun used with modifier

  • offside: Danny Thornton beat the offside trap to give Shelf an interval lead.
  • moth: The Rothamsted moth trap is operated from within the Meteorological enclosure.
  • booby: He was severely wounded, losing both his sight and his hands when the Japanese forced him to dismantle a booby trap.
  • gravel: He later blamed his visit to the gravel trap on a missed gear.
  • off-side: Play continued like this until on 28 minutes a long ball looking to find Paul Hughes, activated Wellingborough's off-side trap.
  • enhancer: We have completed two large Agrobacterium T-DNA based enhancer trap screens, based on GAL4 and HAP1, respectively.

Preposition: in

  • wreckage: His instructor, Flight Lieutenant H.E. Power, was trapped in the wreckage with his clothing alight.
  • spiral: The good person becomes trapped in this spiral and his character deteriorates.
trap Quotes

   Most of my colleagues were -ists of one sort or another; and however kind and friendly they might be, I, the man without a rag of a label to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of theuneasy feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leaving the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to his normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of 'agnostic'.

—Huxley,T(homas) H(enry)

This will be the issue of that darling Plea, of being one and not two; it will be turned upon the Scots with a Vengeance; and their 45 Scots Members may dance round to all Eternity, in thisTrap of their own making.

—Fletcher (of Saltoun), Andrew