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mantrap

British  
/ ˈmænˌtræp /

noun

  1. a snare for catching people, esp trespassers

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

The love-lorn Lucy, trekking from Wales to see him, falls into a steel mantrap and breaks her leg; though two days later she is fit enough for a spree in Bath.

From The Guardian • Jul. 15, 2017

The mantrap that ensnares Alice, however, is not poverty or adultery but Alzheimer’s disease, which snaps into her without mercy.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 12, 2015

However, as long as no one hunted them or set a mantrap to ensnare them, as is sometimes the case, they probably found something to eat and survived another day.

From Scientific American • May 19, 2013

Then the moat was filled with water lifted from the river by paddle-wheel scoop, and last week water lilies floated above the mantrap of bamboo spikes.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dylan snatches the envelope off the ground and they both make it back to the jeep without the Mars mantrap even realizing what happened.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston