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
They were flawed individuals, but they had 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
Held high in her hand was a mousetrap, with the mouse still in it.
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
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
There are more than 4,400 mousetrap patents in the United States, but it is difficult to find designs specifically for catching rats — most are just bigger mousetraps.
From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 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
Some find their way to barn lofts; some even creep into people’s houses and live under the eaves or in attics, taking their chances with mousetraps.
From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien
Last week, mousetrapped by George McGovern, whom he admires, New York Times Columnist Tom Wicker performed a manful act.
From Time Magazine Archive
More often than they like to remember, defending linemen have sifted through to smear Passer Graham, found themselves mousetrapped behind the line of scrimmage while 235-lb.
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
He didn't know what had happened, except for one clear thing: they had been mousetrapped.
From The Blue Ghost Mystery by Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)
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.
