steel trap
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of steel trap
First recorded in 1725–35
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.
He has a mind like a steel trap and never forgets anything he is told or reads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2025
Tessa is the hard steel trap to Thia’s openness, the synth devoted following her superior’s orders regardless of how cruel they might be.
From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2025
Douglass, who disapproved of the use of violence, wrote that he had warned Brown that “he was going into a perfect steel trap, and that once in he would never get out alive.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2020
Warren has — twice — and she has a mind like a steel trap.
From The Guardian ● May 18, 2019
Gertrustein had said that Sam had a mind like a steel trap.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
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.
