trap definition

English trap definition

Pronunciation

• enPR: trăp, IPA^(key): /tɹæp/, [t̠ɹ̠̊˔æp]
• (Northern English) IPA^(key): [t̠ɹ̠̊˔äp]

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æp

Etymology 1

From Middle English trappe, from Old English træppe, treppe (“trap, snare”) (also in betræppan (“to trap”)) from Proto-Germanic *trap-, from Proto-Indo-European *dremb- (“to run”).

Akin to Old High German trappa, trapa (“trap, snare”), Middle Dutch trappe (“trap, snare”), Middle Low German treppe (“step, stair”) (German Treppe "step, stair"), Old English treppan (“to step, tread”). Connection to "step" is "that upon which one steps". French trappe and Spanish trampa are ultimately borrowings from Germanic.

Noun

trap (countable and uncountable, plural traps)

1. A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.

   Synonym: snare

   I put down some traps in my apartment to try and deal with the mouse problem.

2. A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.

   Unfortunately she fell into the trap of confusing biology with destiny.

   • 1613, William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

     God and your majesty / Protect mine innocence, or I fall into / The trap is laid for me!

3. A covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor.

   Close the trap, would you, before someone falls and breaks their neck.

4. (now rare) A kind of movable stepladder or set of stairs.
   • 1798 January 3, Edinburgh Weekly Journal, page 5:

     There is likewise a cabin trap with five steps.

   • 1842, Ellison Jack (girl, age 11), quoted in The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines, page 48:

     "I have to bear my burthen up four traps, or ladders, before I get to the main road which leads to the pit bottom."

   • 1847, David Low, Elements of Practical Agriculture, page 37

     They have very generally received the name of trap-rocks, because they often present the appearance of traps or stairs.

   • 1867, The Children's hour, page 137:

     Little Alf turned at once, and bidding Frank good-bye, he went into the house, and climbed up the trap stair into his little room in the garret, and pondered in his heart these words of Dolly's.

   • 1875, The Gardner: A Magazine of Horticulture and Floriculture, page 3:

     The labour and time that are saved by thus concentrating and placing the heating power in doing away with the running to so many points, and up and down so many stairs or traps in attending to a number of fires, is also well worth noticing.

   • 1887, George G. Green, Gordonhaven, page 114:

     Coming near the door, Scorgie cautioned quietness, and pointing to a trap stair he motioned Mr. Love and Donald to ascend to the loft.

   • 1889 (original 1886), Willock, Rosetty Ends, 29:

     Had climbed up the trap-stair, and was busy potterin' aboot.

   • 1920, Soviet Russia, page 14:

     Tossing, the negro walks up the trap-ladder. But the emotions of a drunkard change quickly.

   • 1960, Bernard Guilbert Guerney, An Anthology of Russian Literature in the Soviet Period from Gorki to Pasternak

     The stokers, breaking into excited talk, picked him up and dragged him up the trap ladder to the deck. The Canadian wiped the blood off Petka's injured forehead ...

5. A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
6. The game of trapball itself.
7. Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.

   They shot out of the school gates like greyhounds out of the trap.

8. A bend, sag, or other device in a waste-pipe arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents the escape of noxious gases, but permits the flow of liquids.
9. A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for lack of an outlet.
10. (aviation, military, slang) A successful landing on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.

    After 100 traps, the arresting cables have to be replaced to minimize the danger of a worn or fatigued cable snapping under an aircraft.

11. (historical) A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.
    • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], OCLC 855945:

      The two women looked down the alley. At the end of the Bottoms a man stood in a sort of old-fashioned trap, bending over bundles of cream-coloured stuff; while a cluster of women held up their arms to him, some with bundles.

    • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 51

      I had told them they could have my trap to take them as far as the road went, because after that they had a long walk.

    • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

      At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.

12. (slang) A person's mouth.

    Keep your trap shut.

13. (slang, archaic) A policeman.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 558204586:

      “He hung about, not to come over here afore dark, but he’ll be here soon,” replied Chitling. “There’s nowhere else to go to now, for the people at the Cripples are all in custody, and the bar of the ken—I went up there and see it with my own eyes—is filled with traps.”

14. (in the plural) Belongings.
    • 1870, Mark Twain, Running for Governor,

      ...his cabin-mates in Montana losing small valuables from time to time, until at last, these things having been invariably found on Mr. Twain's person or in his "trunk" (newspaper he rolled his traps in)...

    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter IX, p. 144, [1]

      "Carry your traps out, Ma?" asked one of the passengers.

15. (slang) A cubicle (in a public toilet).

    I've just laid a cable in trap 2 so I'd give it 5 minutes if I were you.

16. (sports) Trapshooting.
17. (geology) A geological structure that creates a petroleum reservoir.
18. (computing) An exception generated by the processor or by an external event.
19. (Australia, slang, historical) A mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush.
    • 1996, Judith Kapferer, Being All Equal: Identity, Difference and Australian Cultural Practice, page 84,

      The miners′ grievances centred on the issue of the compulsory purchase of miners′ licences and the harassment of raids by the licensing police, the ‘traps,’ in search of unlicensed miners.

    • 2006, Helen Calvert, Jenny Herbst, Ross Smith, Australia and the World: Thinking Historically, page 55,

      Diggers were angered by frequent licence inspections and harassment by ‘the traps’ (the goldfield police).

21. (US, slang, African-American Vernacular, also attributive) A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.

    trap phone

    trap car

22. (slang, informal, sometimes offensive, sometimes derogatory) Someone who is anatomically male but who passes as female.
    • 2011 May 27, “Re: anons target US chamber”, in alt.2600, Usenet‎^[2]:

      And trust me you don't want to see a trap ether. I like my girls without a ding-a-ling.

    • 2020, jaye simpson, it was never going to be okay, Harbour Publishing (→ISBN)

      man says he isn't a fag when asking

      to masturbate with my body. positions

      himself as conqueror, calls my body

      trick,

      trap,

      tranny.

      man fucks witch

      embarrassed by his own release […]

    • 2021, Coulsdon Writers, Back to the Writing (→ISBN), page 37:

      “My son is a tranny.” “No, mother dear, I'm a Trap. There is a difference. You should have knocked before you came in.” 'Trap'? For all she knew about terms for cross-dressers he could have said he was a splurge monkey or yiff jumper and it would have meant the same. […] "Now I'm Poppy. I'm a boy who's androgynous enough to be confused as a girl[.]"

    • (Can we date this quote?), Klei Nightwriter, The Book of Voltaire: The Complete Bundle (Season 1) 3rd Edition REVISED, Klei Nightwriter

      I love femboys better than trannies, traps are better than futa anyway. We conversed and we started to get close. I chose her. So, she told me to sit down so she can cut my hair. "I want to dye my hair; how much is that?"

    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:trap.
23. (slang, informal, sometimes considered offensive) A fictional character from anime, or related media, who is coded as or has qualities typically associated with a gender other than the character's ostensible gender; otokonoko, josou.
    • 2013, One Piece: Grand Line 3 Point 5, page 47:

      One way to spot a trap is to look for an adam's apple.

    • 2010 July 20, Antonio E. Gonzalez, “Re:Moyashimon Live Action”, in rec.arts.anime.misc, Usenet‎^[3]:

      Of course Kei would look like a young woman, that's how traps work!

    • 2013 September 7, Bobbie Sellers, “Re: What's your favouite anime?”, in rec.arts.manga, Usenet‎^[4]:

      I saw Episode 10 of the anime today. When it explains about the trap's problems in HS it was much clearer than the same section of the manga.

24. (music, uncountable) A genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass.

    Synonym: trap music

25. (slang, uncountable) The money earned by a prostitute for a pimp.
    • 2010, C. J. Land, A Hustler's Tale, page 54:

      The money clip held thirty-nine hundred dollars, combined with her trap money, she had five thousand dollars for her man.

    • 2011, Shaheem Hargrove, Sharice Cuthrell, The Rise and Fall of a Ghetto Celebrity, page 55:

      The code was to call a pimp and tell him you have his hoe plus turn over her night trap but that was bull because the HOE was out of his stable months before I copped her.

    • 2012 (original 1981), Alix Kates Shulman, On the Stroll: A Novel, Open Road Media (→ISBN):

      For the first time in the week since she'd been hooking she hadn't made her trap.

27. (US, slang, African-American Vernacular, also attributive) An area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood.
    • 2018, Kyle T. Mays, Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America, page 93:

      Maybe T.I was also making connection between fur trapping and living in the trap, or the hood.

Antonyms

(aircraft-carrier landing): bolter

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

trap (third-person singular simple present traps, present participle trapping, simple past and past participle trapped)

1. (transitive) To physically capture, to catch in a trap or traps, or something like a trap.
   • 2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist:

     As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.

   to trap foxes

2. (transitive) To ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 731548838:

     I trapp'd the foe.

3. (transitive) To provide with a trap.

   to trap a drain

   to trap a sewer pipe

4. (intransitive) To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game.

   trap for beaver

5. (aviation, military, slang, intransitive) To successfully land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.

   After three consecutive bolters, the pilot finally trapped successfully on the Nimitz.

6. (intransitive) To leave suddenly, to flee.
7. (US, slang, informal, African-American Vernacular, intransitive) To sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area.
8. (computing, intransitive) To capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it.
9. (mining, dated) To attend to and open and close a (trap-)door.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:trap.
10. (slang, informal, sometimes offensive) Of a 'trap': to trick a (heterosexual) man into having sex, by appearing to be a woman.
    • 2016, Stefan Horlacher, Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives,Palgrave Macmillan US, page 92:

      Straight cis men persist in believing that my transition is all about them—tricking them, trapping them, ruining them.

    • 2019, Rachel Anne Williams, Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism, and Politics, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (→ISBN), page 32:

      A "trap" is basically a trans girl or crossdresser who "tricks" or "traps" a straight male into getting aroused by them and then suddenly reveals their trans status.

    • 2020, Natalie Boero, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment, Little, Brown and Company, pages 211–212:

      the Western pornography genre in which a straight man believes he is being seduced by a cis woman, and by the time he discovers she is trans has been “trapped” by his lust into having a sexual encounter with her.

Antonyms

(land on an aircraft carrier):

• bolter

Derived terms

• betrap

Translations

Related terms

• entrap
• entrapment

References

• 1895, William Dwight Whitney, The Century Dictionary, page 6441, "trap": "A kind of movable ladder or steps: a ladder leading up to a loft."
• 2010, Richard W. Kroon, A/V A to Z An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms, page 702, "trap n. A type of character common to anime; one who is identified as male, but who is depicted as quite beautiful and feminine."

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Swedish trapp (“step, stair, stairway”), from Middle Low German trappe (“stair, step”).

Noun

trap (countable and uncountable, plural traps)

1. A dark coloured igneous rock, now used to designate any non-granitic igneous rock; trap rock.

Derived terms

• trappean
• trappous
• trappy

Etymology 3

Akin to Middle English trappe (“trappings, gear”), and perhaps from Old Northern French trape, a byform of Old French drap, a word of the same origin as English drab (“a kind of cloth”).

Verb

trap (third-person singular simple present traps, present participle trapping, simple past and past participle trapped)

1. To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book II, canto VIII, stanza 16:

     To decke his herce, and trap his tomb-blacke steed

   • 1840, Alfred Tennyson, “Godiva”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, OCLC 1008064829, page 114:

     [T]here she found her palfrey trapt / In purple blazon'd with armorial gold.

Related terms

• trapping

Etymology 4

Shortening.

Noun

trap (plural traps)

1. (slang, bodybuilding) The trapezius muscle.

Anagrams

• part, part., patr-, prat, rapt, rtPA, tarp

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Afrikaans trap definition

Etymology

From Dutch trap, from Middle Dutch trappe, from Old Dutch *trappa, from Proto-Germanic *trappō, *trappōn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /trap/

Noun

trap (plural trappe, diminutive trappie)

1. stairs, staircase

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Albanian trap definition

Etymology

Either a t- prefixed form of *rap, related to rrap (cf. Old Norse raptr (“rafter”), English raft), or akin to Proto-Germanic *trap-, compare Old High German trappa, trapa (“trap, snare”), German Treppe (“step, stair”), Old English treppan (“to step, tread”), English trap.

Noun

trap m

1. raft, ferry
2. thick grove
3. furrow, channel, ditch
4. path (on the mountains or in the woods)

Related terms

• rrap

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Czech trap definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈtrap]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Slavic *torpъ.

Noun

trap m inan

1. trot

   Synonyms: klus, poklus

Etymology 2

Noun

trap m inan

1. trap shooting

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

trap

1. second-person singular imperative of trápit

Further reading

• trap in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• trap in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

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Dutch trap definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /trɑp/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trap
• Rhymes: -ɑp

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch trappe, from Old Dutch *trappa, from Proto-Germanic *trappō, *trappōn, from Proto-Indo-European *dremb- (“to run”).

Noun

trap m (plural trappen, diminutive trapje n or trappetje n)

1. stairs, staircase
2. ladder
3. degree, grade
4. kick (act of kicking)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: trap
• Berbice Creole Dutch: trapu
• Jersey Dutch: trāp
• Negerhollands: trap
• → Arawak: taráfo
• → Indonesian: terap
• → Japanese: タラップ (tarappu)
• → Russian: трап (trap)
• → Sranan Tongo: trapu, trappo
  • → Galibi Carib: tarapu
• → Warao: tarabha, taraja

Verb

trap

1. first-person singular present indicative of trappen
2. imperative of trappen

Etymology 2

From German Trappe, from Polish drop or Czech drop.

Noun

trap f (plural trappen, diminutive trapje n)

1. bustard

Anagrams

• prat

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Finnish trap definition

Etymology

From English trap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrɑp/, [ˈt̪rɑp]
• IPA^(key): /ˈtræp/, [ˈt̪ræp]
• Rhymes: -ɑp
• Syllabification: trap

Noun

trap

1. trapshooting, trap (type of shooting sport)
2. (ice hockey) trap
   • 2016 October 23, Juha Hiitelä, “Pilaako trap-puolustus jääkiekon? [Is the Trap Defence Ruining Ice Hockey?]”, in Ilta-Sanomat‎^[5]:

Declension

Pronunciation /ˈt̪rɑp/:

	singular	plural
nominative	trap	trapit
genitive	trapin	trappien
partitive	trappia	trappeja
accusative	trap trapin	trapit
inessive	trapissa	trapeissa
elative	trapista	trapeista
illative	trappiin	trappeihin
adessive	trapilla	trapeilla
ablative	trapilta	trapeilta
allative	trapille	trapeille
essive	trappina	trappeina
translative	trapiksi	trapeiksi
instructive	–	trapein
abessive	trapitta	trapeitta
comitative	–	trappeineen