trapeze
Americannoun
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an apparatus, used in gymnastics and acrobatics, consisting of a short horizontal bar attached to the ends of two suspended ropes.
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(on a small sailboat) a device by which a crew member can be suspended almost completely outboard while hiking.
noun
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a free-swinging bar attached to two ropes, used by circus acrobats, etc
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a sling like a bosun's chair at one end of a line attached to the masthead of a light racing sailing boat, used in sitting out
Etymology
Origin of trapeze
1860–65; < French, special use of trapèze trapezium
Explanation
If you've been to the circus, you've probably seen a trapeze, a swing-like bar on ropes hanging high in the air. Trapeze performers do daring tricks while swinging far above the ground. Acrobats and trapeze artists are trained to dangle and flip and leap from trapeze to trapeze as they swing dozens of feet above the ground. The trapeze was invented in 1859 by a French performer named Jules Leotard. The word trapeze comes from the Latin word trapezium, a geometrical four-sided figure that is mimicked by the shape made by the ceiling, ropes, and bar in a trapeze.
Vocabulary lists containing trapeze
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.
Times entertainment and features editor Brittany Levine Beckman suggests the Santa Monica Trapeze School, which is where her husband/then boyfriend took her on a birthday date years ago.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2026
Trapeze Talia was scouted by a circus direct to join after winning the UK championships three years in a row and fell in love with the life and has never looked back.
From BBC • Jul. 25, 2022
“Dances in the Sky” is Emerald City Trapeze Arts’ first in-person professional performance since the pandemic began.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 16, 2021
She was starting a new imprint, Trapeze, at the publishing conglomerate Hachette, whose UK headquarters occupy an angular modern building on the north bank of the Thames.
From The Guardian • Nov. 22, 2016
The Flying Trapeze is the ultimate achievement of acrobatic art, and it demands the utmost combination of skilful strength and of easy grace.
From A Book About the Theater by Matthews, Brander
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.
