ensnare

present singular third person ensnares · participle present ensnaring · participle past ensnared · past ensnared · alternative insnare

1. To entrap; to catch in a snare or trap.

   The Geese and the Cranes fed in the same meadow. A birdcatcher came to ensnare them in his nets.

   1887, Æsop, translated by George Fyler Townsend, Three Hundred Æsop's Fables

   3 more examples

   Let theſe / Inſnare the vvretched in the toils of lavv, / Fomenting diſcord, and perplexing right, / An iron race!

   a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 160, lines 1289–1292

   When we were asked to what one should apply the name “what is not”, we were ensnared in total paradox. Remember?

   2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown and 250d-e, Sophist

   When he spurns her, Julia is outraged to hear it is because she did not measure up to his secret list of 10 bullet-pointed attributes for an ideal bride. To get her own back, she invites her best friend, penniless clergyman’s daughter Selina Dalton (Freida Pinto), up to town to ensnare Malcolm, by faking the 10 comely attributes from his list.

   2022 August 24, Peter Bradshaw, “Mr Malcolm’s List review – Regency romcom served with cake-icing of irony”, in The Guardian

2. figurativelyTo entangle; to enmesh.

   But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

   2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion

   1 more example

   The gamble proved devastating for millions of people, beyond public figures ensnared in the leak and subsequent media frenzy, including the reality TV star Josh Duggar, the Real Housewives Of New York star Kristen Taekman’s husband and, in an earlier scandal, the politician Eliot Spitzer.

   2021 March 7, David Hytner, “Manchester United catch City cold as Fernandes and Shaw end winning run”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: ensnarl, ravel, snarl, enmesh, ensnarl, entangle, foul, implicate