entrap
Americanverb (used with object)
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entraps,
present (3rd person singular)
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entrapped,
past participle, past
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entrapping
present participle
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to catch in or as in a trap; ensnare.
The hunters used nets to entrap the lion.
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to bring unawares into difficulty or danger.
He entrapped himself in the web of his own lies.
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to lure into performing an act or making a statement that is compromising or illegal.
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to draw into contradiction or damaging admission.
The questioner entrapped her into an admission of guilt.
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Law. to catch by entrapment.
verb
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to catch or snare in or as if in a trap
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to lure or trick into danger, difficulty, or embarrassment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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entrapsimple
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entrapssimple
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have entrappedperfect
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has entrappedperfect
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am entrappingprogressive
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are entrappingprogressive
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is entrappingprogressive
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have been entrappingperfect progressive
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has been entrappingperfect progressive
Past
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entrappedsimple
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had entrappedperfect
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was entrappingprogressive
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were entrappingprogressive
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had been entrappingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entrap
From the Middle French word entraper, dating back to 1525–35. See en- 1, trap 1
Explanation
If you entrap someone, you entangle or snare them, as if you'd caught them in a trap. Your family might entrap you in their elaborate summer plans, despite your wish to take a vacation all by yourself. The expectations of other people — or your own high standards — can entrap you into the feeling you should always do well in school or pursue material success. Another way one person might entrap another is more deliberate, by setting a trap or playing a trick. A police officer might entrap a suspect, persuading him to commit a crime in order to make an arrest. The Old French root is entraper, "catch in a trap."
Vocabulary lists containing entrap
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Learning from troops in Ukraine, Israeli forces have begun covering their positions with netting to entrap and tangle the tiny drones.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
Chip makers use it as a carrier gas to entrap and transport certain chemicals, transfer energy to chemical reactants and cool silicon wafers during production.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 13, 2026
The document outlines the myriad ways the country’s security agents would try to surveil, entrap, compromise and recruit American visitors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025
“AI will entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what’s real,” she warned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2024
“Do you want me then,” said Estella, turning suddenly with a fixed and serious, if not angry, look, “to deceive and entrap you?”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
FBI Director Kash Patel said "you cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm's way."
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
Sterling’s performance art slowly becomes indistinguishable from the Kafkaesque legal system that entraps the performers.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 7, 2023
Instead, what it shows is that rather than open doors for students, debt entraps them.
From Salon ● May 8, 2021
All that would need to happen is for a glacier to float above whatever geological feature entraps it.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2018
We cannot help asking ourselves why the pitcher-plant entraps these insects.
From Chatterbox, 1905. by Various
Cyclospora parasites often become entrapped in produce through contaminated water used to grow or wash it, so areas that come into contact with water are more likely to be affected.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Thailand previously implemented similar measures on neighbouring Myanmar, which is also home to thriving scam networks that have entrapped thousands of foreigners.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2025
The kind who can stand up against those hoping to keep you entrapped.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2024
They’re not easily entrapped, these two, and who can blame them for keeping the fruits of their painstaking labor secret?
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2023
Even a Negro, entrapped by ignorance and exploitation—as I had been—could, if he had the will and the love for it, learn to read and understand the world in which he lived.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
In dressing rooms, a size-XS shirt would go over my head instead of entrapping me like a straitjacket.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2024
Critics have accused federal agents of entrapping a group men who were down on their luck after doing prison time.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 20, 2024
In the stomach, germs must also overcome other deadly barriers such as digestive enzymes, entrapping mucus and the ever-watchful immune system defenses.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2023
Many pits were active over thousands of years, entrapping countless animals whose remains muddled together.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
He was apparently given, as a last chance, the opportunity of regaining his reputation by entrapping Gordon into the rebel power, and he thoroughly entered into the scheme, although he failed to carry it out.
From The Life of Gordon, Volume I by Demetrius Charles Boulger
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
