pitfall and gin

plural pitfalls and gins · alternative pitfalls and gins

1. figurativelyAn obstacle or impediment, or anything that might trick or ensnare someone.

   "All I know of this old trail [...] is what you can see. I got it from the highroad. I was covering the kite who went in. Where it leads, and if it's beset with "pitfall and gin", I can't say."

   1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page xi. 103

   2 more examples

   Thanks, however, to the almost uncanny faculty of the Gurkha for avoiding, in the dark, “pitfall and gin" — in this case tent ropes, ravines, and terraces, these last in some places giving a drop of twelve feet or even more'

   1930, History of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) 1858 to 1928, page 352

   NOT in the same "head ache" class as Mr O. Richardson's "New Year's Gift," but still with a few pitfalls and gins for the unwary, this innocent six-card problem has a certain novelty of its own.

   1949 January 13, The Herald, Melbourne, page 13, column 2