trapped

American  

[trapt] / træpt /

adjective

1. caught in or as if in a trap or by a ruse, trick, or stratagem.

   Relocate any trapped rabbit at least five miles from the capture site.

   Early in the visit I became the trapped witness to a nasty argument between my host and his wife, which they expected me to arbitrate.

2. (of air, water, etc.) held or contained in an enclosed space or in another substance.

   Make sure the clay is pressed flat, with no trapped air bubbles.

3. accidentally stuck or jammed in a narrow place from which release is difficult.

   This excellent telescopic ladder has finger guards—no more trapped fingers when letting it down!

4. set with traps.

   We followed the track carefully through heavily trapped bush to the meeting place.

5. (of a drain, pipe, or the like) furnished with a device for stopping undesirable substances from flowing through.

   The pipes discharge wastewater into a sewer, usually through a trapped drain.

6. Baseball. (of a ball) caught as it hits the ground.

   Challenges to the umpire included a trapped ball in the outfield that nobody else thought was actually caught.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of trap

Etymology

Origin of trapped

First recorded in 1425–75; trap ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; trap ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

“So we’re still trapped inside of our neighborhood, as far as all of our vehicles go,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times

Access to the wave was cut off for several months earlier this year after the death of a 33-year-old Munich woman who became trapped under the surface while surfing at night.

From Barron's

The bear that squeezed through a small opening and made himself at home is tagged by wildlife officials as 2120 and has been trapped and moved from Altadena before.

From Los Angeles Times

Yet Kip feels trapped by Scott’s insistence that they keep their romance a secret — a tale as old as the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

From Salon

Some of the most promising quantum computing designs use trapped ions or trapped neutral atoms to store information.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• captured
• cornered