trap1
n.
- a device or enclosure designed to catch and retain animals.
- an unpleasant situation from which it is hard to escape.
▸a trick betraying someone into acting contrary to their interests or intentions.
- a container or device used to collect a specified thing.
▸a curve in the waste pipe from a bath, basin, or toilet that is always full of liquid to prevent the upward passage of gases.
- a bunker or other hollow on a golf course.
- the compartment from which a greyhound is released at the start of a race.
- a device for hurling an object such as a clay pigeon into the air to be shot at.
- a light, two-wheeled carriage pulled by a horse or pony.
- informal a person's mouth:
keep your trap shut!
-
(traps)
informal (among jazz musicians) drums or percussion instruments.
v.
(traps, trapping, trapped)
- catch (an animal) in a trap.
- prevent from escaping.
▸catch (something) somewhere so that it cannot be freed.
- trick into doing something.
Derivative
Etymology
OE træppe (in coltetræppe ‘Christ's thorn’); rel. to MDu. trappe and med. L. trappa, of uncertain origin.
trap2
v.
(traps, trapping, trapped)
[
usu. as adj. trapped]
archaic put trappings on (a horse).
Etymology
ME: from the obs. noun trap ‘trappings’, from OFr. drap ‘drape’.
trap3
n.
N. Amer. basalt or a similar dark, fine-grained igneous rock.
Etymology
C18: from Swed. trapp, from trappa ‘stair’ (because of the often stair-like appearance of its outcroppings).