mousetrap
Americannoun
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a trap for mice, especially one consisting of a rectangular wooden base on which a metal spring is mounted.
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a device, machine, or the like whose structure or function suggests a trap for mice.
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a device, system, or stratagem for detecting and catching someone in an unauthorized or illegal act.
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Football. trap.
verb (used with object)
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Informal.
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to trap or snare.
traffic cops mousetrapping drunken drivers.
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to manipulate by devious or clever means; trick or outwit.
to mousetrap the witness into a contradiction.
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Football. trap.
idioms
noun
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any trap for catching mice, esp one with a spring-loaded metal bar that is released by the taking of the bait
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informal cheese of indifferent quality
Etymology
Origin of mousetrap
First recorded in 1400–50, mousetrap is from late Middle English mous trappe. See mouse, trap 1
Explanation
A mousetrap is a device for catching or killing mice. If mice have overtaken your home, running around your living room at night and making nests in your silverware drawer, it might be time to get some mousetraps. The most basic type of mousetrap has a metal bar that springs loose when a mouse steps on it and snaps hard enough to kill it. Other mousetraps trap a curious mouse so that you can release it (preferably far away from your house). Mice are tempted into any kind of mousetrap by edible bait like cheese or peanut butter. The word mousetrap was used figuratively in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to mean a "trick intended to ensnare someone."
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.
If I can create a better mousetrap, because I’m observing something that has just been accepted, and I can do it better, then I will go into that industry.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
A bit like setting and later triggering a mousetrap.
From BBC • May 7, 2026
"Wagner troops climbed into Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap," Oleksander Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces, told troops at the Bakhmut front this week.
From Reuters • May 20, 2023
Continuing its emphasis on style and character progression, these three new episodes take Morse and Thursday into the world of professional football, a nudist colony and an Agatha Christie-flavored mousetrap.
From Salon • Jun. 19, 2022
TimeStar hurled a mousetrap provided by Archie’s Hardware Store.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
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.
