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

See Examples For:

trapped

The service said it can smoulder for a long time when heat from a fire is trapped.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Bassal said that more than 8,000 bodies are still trapped under Gaza's rubble.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

Workers regularly collect the trapped mosquitoes and, after sticking them in a fridge for a while to knock them out, sort them by species and count them.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026

To be fair to Mr. Trump, he isn’t the first to find himself trapped in a nightmare like this.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

My real name is Rumpel, and it means I’m trapped in magic forever and no one can help me.

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

Related Words

• captured
• cornered