trap

¹ American  

[trap] / træp /

noun

1. a contrivance used for catching game or other animals, as a mechanical device that springs shut suddenly.

2. any device, stratagem, trick, or the like for catching a person unawares.

3. any of various devices for removing undesirable substances from a moving fluid, vapor, etc., as water from steam or cinders from coal gas.

4. Also called air trap.  an arrangement in a pipe, as a double curve or a U -shaped section, in which liquid remains and forms a seal for preventing the passage or escape of air or of gases through the pipe from behind or below.

5. traps, the percussion instruments of a jazz or dance band.

6. trap music.

7. Slang. trap house.

8. Trapshooting. a device for hurling clay pigeons into the air.

9. trapdoor.

10. Golf. sand trap.

11. Baseball. an act or instance of trapping a ball.

12. Also called trap play.  Also called mousetrap.  Football. a play in which a defensive player, usually a guard or tackle, is allowed by the team on offense to cross the line of scrimmage into the backfield and is then blocked out from the side, thereby letting the ball-carrier run through the opening in the line.

13. the piece of wood, shaped somewhat like a shoe hollowed at the heel, and moving on a pivot, used in playing the game of trapball.

14. the game of trapball.

15. Slang. mouth.

    Keep your trap shut.

16. Slang: Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive. (especially in anime) a crossdressing man who is perceived as or passes as a woman: a disparaging and offensive term when referring to a trans woman.

17. Chiefly British. a carriage, especially a light, two-wheeled one.

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verb (used with object)

trapped, trapping

1. to catch in a trap; ensnare.

   to trap foxes.

2. to catch by stratagem, artifice, or trickery.

3. to furnish or set with traps.

4. to provide (a drain or the like) with a trap.

5. to stop and hold by a trap, as air in a pipe.

6. Baseball. to catch (a ball) as or immediately after it hits the ground.

7. Football. to execute a trap against (a defensive player).

verb (used without object)

trapped, trapping

1. to set traps for game.

   He was busy trapping.

2. to engage in the business of trapping animals for their furs.

3. Trapshooting. to work the trap.

trap ² American  

[trap] / træp /

noun

1. Informal. traps, personal belongings; baggage.

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verb (used with object)

trapped, trapping

1. to furnish with or as with trappings; caparison.

trap ³ American  

[trap] / træp /

noun

Geology.

1. any of various fine-grained, dark-colored igneous rocks having a more or less columnar structure, especially some form of basalt.

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trap ⁴ American  

[trap] / træp /

noun

Scot.

1. a ladder or ladderlike device used to reach a loft, attic, etc.

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trap ¹ British  

/ træp /

noun

1. a mechanical device or enclosed place or pit in which something, esp an animal, is caught or penned

2. any device or plan for tricking a person or thing into being caught unawares

3. anything resembling a trap or prison

4. a fitting for a pipe in the form of a U-shaped or S-shaped bend that contains standing water to prevent the passage of gases

5. any similar device

6. a device that hurls clay pigeons into the air to be fired at by trapshooters

7. any one of a line of boxlike stalls in which greyhounds are enclosed before the start of a race

8. See trap door

9. a light two-wheeled carriage

10. a slang word for mouth

11. golf an obstacle or hazard, esp a bunker

12. slang (plural) jazz percussion instruments

13. obsolete (usually plural) a policeman

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verb

1. (tr) to catch, take, or pen in or as if in a trap; entrap

2. (tr) to ensnare by trickery; trick

3. (tr) to provide (a pipe) with a trap

4. to set traps in (a place), esp for animals

trap ² British  

/ træp /

noun

1. an obsolete word for trappings

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verb

1. to dress or adorn

trap ³ British  

/ træp /

noun

1. any fine-grained often columnar dark igneous rock, esp basalt

2. any rock in which oil or gas has accumulated

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trap Idioms  

1. see fall into a trap; mind like a steel trap.

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Synonym Usage

Trap , pitfall , snare apply to literal or figurative contrivances for deceiving and catching animals or people. Literally, a trap is a mechanical contrivance for catching animals, the main feature usually being a spring: a trap baited with cheese for mice. Figuratively, trap suggests the scheme of one person to take another by surprise and thereby gain an advantage: a trap for the unwary. A pitfall is (usually) a concealed pit arranged for the capture of large animals or of people who may fall into it; figuratively, it is any concealed danger, error, or source of disaster: to avoid the pitfalls of life. A snare is a device for entangling birds, rabbits, etc., with intent to capture; figuratively, it implies enticement and inveiglement: the snare of selfishness.

Other Word Forms

• traplike
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of trap¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English trappe (noun), trappen (verb), Old English træppe (noun), cognate with Middle Dutch trappe ( Dutch trap ) “trap, step, staircase”; akin to Old English treppan “to tread,” German Treppe “staircase”

Origin of trap²

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English trappe (noun), trappen (verb); of unknown origin

Origin of trap³

First recorded in 1785–95; from Swedish trapp, variant of trappa “stair” (so named from the stepped appearance of their outcrops), from Middle Low German trappe; see trap ¹

Origin of trap⁴

First recorded in 1750–60; from Dutch: “stepladder”; see trap ¹

Explanation

A trap is something you can’t get out of. If a critter is nibbling at your cherry tomato plants, set a trap to catch the thief. (But if it turns out to be your little brother, set him free!) If a TV character yells, "Look out! It's a trap!" they're dramatically warning someone about an imminent surprise attack or mean-spirited trick. Other kinds of traps include a plumbing trap, a curved pipe that traps liquid in it so that gases can't rise up into your sink, and a sand trap, the tricky hollow where your ball gets stuck on a golf course. The Germanic root word of trap literally means "that onto which one steps."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trap trapped trapping

What really closed the trap, she said, was a trip to Paris the next month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

But Jack’s magnanimous offer is also a booby trap.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

Ryonex has emerged as one of the most notable names in Japan’s new generation of futuristic trap and melodic drill.

From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026

Rough surfaces provide more places for droplets to begin forming, but those same structures can trap the droplets and make them difficult to remove.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026

Parents wait with their kids at the bus stop so nothing bad happens to them, then they watch them climb into the yellow death trap and blow them kisses good-bye.

From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith

"The people who work at these companies are completely serious when they ask for regulation because they find themselves trapped in a race. And they're scared of the outcomes of that race."

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

But I’m not so sure that the families of the 250,000 Pennsylvania students trapped in underperforming schools would agree.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

The tribes also have worked together after rains to orchestrate rescue missions for chi that are trapped in puddles, offshoots and agricultural ditches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

His work is often described as Kafkaesque, and it is true that his clerks, like the characters of Franz Kafka, are trapped in a bizarre world of senseless rules under a cold and indifferent authority.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

In Gran’s stories, damsels in distress were always trapped in towers.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

Jacquie Navratil, who always has cat trapping gear in her van, prepares to trap a colony at Angel City Lumber.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

This, along with farmers and landowners trapping and killing wolves, pushed them to the brink of eradication.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

But the prospect also carries environmental risks if increased traffic accelerates Arctic melting, with soot emissions that settle on the ice cap trapping heat from sunlight.

From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Monday, trapping people under collapsed buildings and presenting an early challenge to a president who was sworn in on Friday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

After all, my grandpa had taught me practically all there was to know about the trapping business.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

Related Words

• ambush
• bait
• booby trap
• device
• net
• pitfall
• ploy
• quagmire
• ruse