gumption trap

noun

An event or mindset that can cause a person to lose enthusiasm and become discouraged from starting or continuing a project.

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Meanings

noungumption trap (plural gumption traps)

plural gumption traps

  1. informalAn event or mindset that can cause a person to lose enthusiasm and become discouraged from starting or continuing a project.

    There are hundreds of different kinds of gumption traps, maybe thousands, maybe millions. I have no way of knowing how many I don't know. I know it seems as though I've stumbled into every kind of gumption trap imaginable.

    1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN, part III, page 304

Origin

Coined by Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gumption trap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gumption%20trap

MLA

“gumption trap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gumption%20trap. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gumption trap,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gumption%20trap.

Source: gumption trap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.