trapeze

[ tra-peez or, especially British, truh- ]
See synonyms for trapeze on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an apparatus, used in gymnastics and acrobatics, consisting of a short horizontal bar attached to the ends of two suspended ropes.

  2. (on a small sailboat) a device by which a crew member can be suspended almost completely outboard while hiking.

Origin of trapeze

1
1860–65; <French, special use of trapèzetrapezium

Words Nearby trapeze

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use trapeze in a sentence

  • The miner's job would be as much beyond my power as it would be to perform on a flying trapeze or to win the Grand National.

    Thatcher's Economic Legacy | Megan McArdle | April 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • "—And right there is where you would miss the trapeze bar by a foot, and no net under you," interrupted Davy disgustedly.

    David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
  • However, the Prince pointed out to me the girl on the trapeze, the same one you had admired in Rome.

    Polly the Pagan | Isabel Anderson
  • In the loft a boy learns to turn flip-flops, and with a lariat rope he can make a trapeze.

    Bill's School and Mine | William Suddards Franklin
  • Then if the bar be grasped and the body thrown forward, the trapeze, the arms, and the body will form the segment of a circle.

  • As I sat on the trapeze bar there was that boy forty feet above me kicking and yelling.

    Careers of Danger and Daring | Cleveland Moffett

British Dictionary definitions for trapeze

trapeze

/ (trəˈpiːz) /


noun
  1. a free-swinging bar attached to two ropes, used by circus acrobats, etc

  2. 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

Origin of trapeze

1
C19: from French trapèze, from New Latin; see trapezium

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012