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
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.
“They say they’re building a better mousetrap to handle more business without laying on additional cost, but you can’t really test that until the business comes,” Seidl said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 30, 2025
"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
“It’s not incentivizing them to go out there and try to find somebody who’s built a better mousetrap and can generate power more cheaply,” he said.
From New York Times • Dec. 20, 2022
He had supposedly built a better mousetrap, and the world had indeed beaten a path to his door.
From Washington Post • Dec. 16, 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.
