trap

¹

[ trap ]

noun

1. a contrivance used for catching game or other animals, as a mechanical device that springs shut suddenly.
2. any device, stratagem, trick, or the like for catching a person unawares.
3. any of various devices for removing undesirable substances from a moving fluid, vapor, etc., as water from steam or cinders from coal gas.
4. Also called air trap. an arrangement in a pipe, as a double curve or a U -shaped section, in which liquid remains and forms a seal for preventing the passage or escape of air or of gases through the pipe from behind or below.
5. traps, the percussion instruments of a jazz or dance band.
6. trap music ( def ).
7. Slang. trap house ( def 1 ).
8. Trapshooting. a device for hurling clay pigeons into the air.
9. trapdoor ( def 1 ).
10. Golf. sand trap ( def ).
11. Baseball. an act or instance of trapping a ball.
12. Also called mousetrap,. Football. a play in which a defensive player, usually a guard or tackle, is allowed by the team on offense to cross the line of scrimmage into the backfield and is then blocked out from the side, thereby letting the ball-carrier run through the opening in the line.
13. the piece of wood, shaped somewhat like a shoe hollowed at the heel, and moving on a pivot, used in playing the game of trapball.
14. the game of trapball.
15. Slang. mouth:

    Keep your trap shut.

16. Slang: Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive. (especially in anime) a crossdressing man who is perceived as or passes as a woman: a disparaging and offensive term when referring to a trans woman.
17. Chiefly British. a carriage, especially a light, two-wheeled one.

verb (used with object)

, trapped, trap·ping.

1. to catch in a trap; ensnare:

   to trap foxes.

2. to catch by stratagem, artifice, or trickery.
3. to furnish or set with traps.
4. to provide (a drain or the like) with a trap.
5. to stop and hold by a trap, as air in a pipe.
6. Baseball. to catch (a ball) as or immediately after it hits the ground.
7. Football. to execute a trap against (a defensive player).

verb (used without object)

, trapped, trap·ping.

1. to set traps for game:

   He was busy trapping.

2. to engage in the business of trapping animals for their furs.
3. Trapshooting. to work the trap.

trap

²

[ trap ]

noun

1. traps, Informal. personal belongings; baggage.

verb (used with object)

, trapped, trap·ping.

1. to furnish with or as with trappings; caparison.

trap

³

[ trap ]

noun

, Geology.

1. any of various fine-grained, dark-colored igneous rocks having a more or less columnar structure, especially some form of basalt.

trap

⁴

[ trap ]

noun

, Scot.

1. a ladder or ladderlike device used to reach a loft, attic, etc.

trap

¹

/ træp /

noun

1. any fine-grained often columnar dark igneous rock, esp basalt
2. any rock in which oil or gas has accumulated

trap

²

/ træp /

noun

1. a mechanical device or enclosed place or pit in which something, esp an animal, is caught or penned
2. any device or plan for tricking a person or thing into being caught unawares
3. anything resembling a trap or prison
4. a fitting for a pipe in the form of a U-shaped or S-shaped bend that contains standing water to prevent the passage of gases
5. any similar device
6. a device that hurls clay pigeons into the air to be fired at by trapshooters
7. any one of a line of boxlike stalls in which greyhounds are enclosed before the start of a race
8. See trap door
9. a light two-wheeled carriage
10. a slang word for mouth
11. golf an obstacle or hazard, esp a bunker
12. slang.
    plural jazz percussion instruments
13. obsolete.
    usually plural a policeman

verb

1. tr to catch, take, or pen in or as if in a trap; entrap
2. tr to ensnare by trickery; trick
3. tr to provide (a pipe) with a trap
4. to set traps in (a place), esp for animals

trap

³

/ træp /

noun

1. an obsolete word for trappings

verb

1. troften foll byout to dress or adorn

Derived Forms

• ˈtrapˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• trap·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of trap¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English trappe (noun), trappen (verb), Old English træppe (noun), cognate with Middle Dutch trappe ( Dutch trap ) “trap, step, staircase”; akin to Old English treppan “to tread,” German Treppe “staircase”

Origin of trap²

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English trappe (noun), trappen (verb); of unknown origin

Origin of trap³

First recorded in 1785–95; from Swedish trapp, variant of trappa “stair” (so named from the stepped appearance of their outcrops), from Middle Low German trappe; trap ¹

Origin of trap⁴

First recorded in 1750–60; from Dutch: “stepladder”; trap ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of trap¹

C18: from Swedish trappa stair (from its steplike formation); see trap ¹

Origin of trap²

Old English træppe ; related to Middle Low German trappe , Medieval Latin trappa

Origin of trap³

C11: probably from Old French drap cloth

Idioms and Phrases

see fall into a trap ; mind like a steel trap .

Synonym Study

Trap , pitfall , snare apply to literal or figurative contrivances for deceiving and catching animals or people. Literally, a trap is a mechanical contrivance for catching animals, the main feature usually being a spring: a trap baited with cheese for mice. Figuratively, trap suggests the scheme of one person to take another by surprise and thereby gain an advantage: a trap for the unwary. A pitfall is (usually) a concealed pit arranged for the capture of large animals or of people who may fall into it; figuratively, it is any concealed danger, error, or source of disaster: to avoid the pitfalls of life. A snare is a device for entangling birds, rabbits, etc., with intent to capture; figuratively, it implies enticement and inveiglement: the snare of selfishness.

Example Sentences

It uses a cavernous hood to trap crustaceans to eat — a feeding strategy also used by anemones and some jellies.

From Los Angeles Times

The high fees can trap renters earning lower or average wages in apartments for years, unable to shell out the cost of an $18,000 gold Cartier bracelet simply to move apartments.

From Salon

Drawn by the promise of jump scares and Hugh Grant in maniacal-villain mode, set in what appeared from the trailers to be a supernatural trap of a house, I sought big-screen escape from the crowing/hand-wringing news cycle.

From Los Angeles Times

Bluesky does not trap users in nonchronological feeds.

From Slate

A teenager blackmailed into sending explicit images to catfish killer Alexander McCartney has told of her anger that he used her photograph to trap other young girls.

From BBC

Related Words

• ambush