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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
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
But they did have a crucial insight into how to build a better mousetrap.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2023
"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
TimeStar hurled a mousetrap provided by Archie’s Hardware Store.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Firms that would have succeeded under any circumstances—because they’ve developed fantastic new mousetraps, or because they’re exposed to the discipline of global trade—continue to grow.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
“They have built one of the most complex mousetraps in the world,” Mr. Brunson said.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2023
But the gatekeepers of phony commercial solutions to existential violence — such as better helmets, no more effective than better mousetraps — want us to focus on only one aspect of football harm.
From Salon ● Jan. 14, 2023
Lay down a few mousetraps or use repellents that they are not fans of.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 21, 2022
Around the camp, Coach Hedge had rigged all sorts of trip wires, snares and oversized mousetraps that wouldn’t stop any self-respecting monster, but they might very well bring down a senior citizen.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Last week, mousetrapped by George McGovern, whom he admires, New York Times Columnist Tom Wicker performed a manful act.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Italians, they reported, were mousetrapped and divided into small units, became easy prey of Greek mountain infantry.
From Time Magazine Archive
Princeton's President Robert F. Goheen, 45, was not about to be mousetrapped.
From Time Magazine Archive
Once there, the visitors often could not leave: "mousetrapped," with their computers' "back" and "close" commands disabled.
From Time Magazine Archive
He couldn't let Gramps take the mousetrapped anti-gerasone—but, if he warned Gramps about it, Gramps would certainly make life in the apartment, which was merely insufferable now, harrowing.
From The Big Trip Up Yonder by Vonnegut, Kurt
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.
