trap

plural traps

1. countableuncountableA machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.

   I put down some traps in my apartment to try and deal with the mouse problem.

   1 more example

   The Russian bear has always been eager to stick his paw in Latin American waters. Now we've got him in a trap, let's take his leg off right up to his testicles. On second thought, let's take off his testicles, too.

   1995, Richard Rhodes, quoting Curtis LeMay, “Scorpions in a Bottle”, in Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 574

   Synonyms: snare, fang

2. countableuncountableA trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.

   Unfortunately she fell into the trap of confusing biology with destiny.

   1 more example

   God and your majesty / Protect mine innocence, or I fall into / The trap is laid for me!

   1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   1. broadlycountableuncountablecartographyA (usually fictional) location or feature originally added to a map to detect plagiarism and copyright violations by other map makers or map services.

      trap street

   2. countablederogatoryinformaloffensiveslangsometimesuncountableusuallySomeone with male-typical anatomy who passes as female.

      And trust me you don't want to see a trap ether. I like my girls without a ding-a-ling.

      2011 May 27, “Re: anons target US chamber”, in alt.2600 (Usenet)

      3 more examples

      man says he isn't a fag when asking to masturbate with my body. positions himself as conqueror, calls my body trick, trap, tranny. man fucks witch embarrassed by his own release […]

      2020, jaye simpson, it was never going to be okay, Harbour Publishing, →ISBN

      “My son is a tranny.” “No, mother dear, I'm a Trap. There is a difference. You should have knocked before you came in.” 'Trap'? For all she knew about terms for cross-dressers he could have said he was a splurge monkey or yiff jumper and it would have meant the same. […] "Now I'm Poppy. I'm a boy who's androgynous enough to be confused as a girl[.]"

      2021, Coulsdon Writers, Back to the Writing, →ISBN, page 37

      , The Book of Voltaire: The Complete Bundle (Season 1) 3rd Edition REVISED, Klei Nightwriter I love femboys better than trannies, traps are better than futa anyway. We conversed and we started to get close. I chose her. So, she told me to sit down so she can cut my hair. "I want to dye my hair; how much is that?"

   3. countableinformalslanguncountablesometimes considered offensiveA fictional character from anime, or related media, who is coded as or has qualities typically associated with a gender other than the character's ostensible gender; otokonoko, josou.

      Bridget is the super trap

      2007 Weekend Reading: Bridget is straight by 8bit Brian of Destructoid, reply by batempo on 20 August 2007

      3 more examples

      Of course Kei would look like a young woman, that's how traps work!

      2010 July 20, Antonio E. Gonzalez, “Re:Moyashimon Live Action”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet)

      I saw Episode 10 of the anime today. When it explains about the trap's problems in HS it was much clearer than the same section of the manga.

      2013 September 7, Bobbie Sellers, “Re: What's your favouite anime?”, in rec.arts.manga (Usenet)

      One way to spot a trap is to look for an adam's apple.

      2013, One Piece: Grand Line 3 Point 5, page 47

3. countableuncountablecomputingAn exception generated by the processor or by an external event.
4. countableuncountableAny device used to hold and suddenly release an object.

   They shot out of the school gates like greyhounds out of the trap.

   1. countableuncountableA covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor.

      Close the trap, would you, before someone falls and breaks their neck.

   2. archaiccountableuncountableA kind of movable stepladder or set of stairs.

      There is likewise a cabin trap with five steps.

      1798 January 3, Edinburgh Weekly Journal, page 5

      5 more examples

      I have to bear my burthen up four traps, or ladders, before I get to the main road which leads to the pit bottom.

      1842, Ellison Jack (girl, age 11), quoted in The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines, page 48

      They have very generally received the name of trap-rocks, because they often present the appearance of traps or stairs.

      1847, David Low, Elements of Practical Agriculture, page 37

      Little Alf turned at once, and bidding Frank good-bye, he went into the house, and climbed up the trap stair into his little room in the garret, and pondered in his heart these words of Dolly's.

      1867, The Children's hour, page 137

      The labour and time that are saved by thus concentrating and placing the heating power in doing away with the running to so many points, and up and down so many stairs or traps in attending to a number of fires, is also well worth noticing.

      1875, The Gardner: A Magazine of Horticulture and Floriculture, page 3

      Coming near the door, Scorgie cautioned quietness, and pointing to a trap stair he motioned Mr. Love and Donald to ascend to the loft.

      1887, George G. Green, Gordonhaven, page 114

5. A bend, sag, or other device in a waste-pipe arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents the escape of noxious gases, but permits the flow of liquids.
   1. countableuncountableA place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for lack of an outlet.
   2. countableuncountablegeographyA geological structure that creates a petroleum reservoir.
6. countableuncountableA wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
   1. countableuncountableThe game of trapball itself.
7. USalsoattributivecountableslanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularA vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.

   trap car

   1 more example

   trap phone

8. USalsoattributivecountableslanguncountableAfrican-American VernacularAn area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood.

   Stay in the trap like my name was McCaulk. Dumb-ahh nigger, I think he meant Culkin.

   2021 November 19, “Pink 3 Remix”performed by PCAJAY

   2 more examples

   Maybe T.I was also making connection between fur trapping and living in the trap, or the hood.

   2018, Kyle T. Mays, Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America, page 93

   Bitch ass nigga get rocked. I walk in da trap with a Glock and a K in my sock. U fag ass nigga get popped. U a gay lil dumb ahh nigga came from TikTok. I'mma talk my shi won't stop. Bitch u all on my dick for a drop, nigga get off my cock.

   2022 September 25, “Dork”performed by Aeterluv

9. uncountableentertainmentA genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass.

   Synonyms: trap music

10. countableslanguncountableaeronauticsA successful landing on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.

    After 100 traps, the arresting cables have to be replaced to minimize the danger of a worn or fatigued cable snapping under an aircraft.

11. countablehistoricaluncountableA light two-wheeled carriage with springs.

    a horse and trap

    4 more examples

    The two women looked down the alley. At the end of the Bottoms a man stood in a sort of old-fashioned trap, bending over bundles of cream-coloured stuff; while a cluster of women held up their arms to him, some with bundles.

    1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

    I had told them they could have my trap to take them as far as the road went, because after that they had a long walk.

    1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 51”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

    At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.

    1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC

    However, Anyon Kay remembers a Mr Walton Ainsworth, of Beech House, Rivington, who owned mills in Bolton, being a regular user before the First World War. He used to drive by horse and trap from his mansion to catch the 0906 train to Bolton each day. Before arriving at the station, local newsagent Tom Dutton would hand Mr Ainsworth his morning paper!

    2023 March 8, Paul Salveson, “Fond farewells to two final trains...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 54

12. countableslanguncountableA person's mouth.

    Keep your trap shut.

13. countableslanguncountableSynonym of vagina.

    But she carries the shawl so well that you never get a peep at her trap until she’s ready to show it to you.

    1941, Henry Miller, Under the Roofs of Paris (Opus Pistorum), New York: Grove Press, published 1983, page 66

    Synonyms: vagina

14. archaiccountableslanguncountableA policeman.

    “He hung about, not to come over here afore dark, but he’ll be here soon,” replied Chitling. “There’s nowhere else to go to now, for the people at the Cripples are all in custody, and the bar of the ken—I went up there and see it with my own eyes—is filled with traps.”

    1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC

15. archaiccountablein pluraluncountableBelongings.

    "Carry your traps out, Ma?" asked one of the passengers.

    1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 144

    1 more example

    ...his cabin-mates in Montana losing small valuables from time to time, until at last, these things having been invariably found on Mr. Twain's person or in his "trunk" (newspaper he rolled his traps in)...

    1870, Mark Twain, Running for Governor

16. countableslanguncountableA cubicle (in a public toilet).

    I've just laid a cable in trap 2 so I'd give it 5 minutes if I were you.

17. countableuncountablegun sportsTrapshooting.
18. AustraliacountablehistoricalslanguncountableA mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush.

    Diggers were angered by frequent licence inspections and harassment by 'the traps' (the goldfield police).

    2006, Helen Calvert, Jenny Herbst, Ross Smith, Australia and the World: Thinking Historically, page 55

    1 more example

    The miners′ grievances centred on the issue of the compulsory purchase of miners′ licences and the harassment of raids by the licensing police, the ‘traps,’ in search of unlicensed miners.

    1996, Judith Kapferer, Being All Equal: Identity, Difference and Australian Cultural Practice, page 84

19. slanguncountableThe money earned by a prostitute for a pimp.

    For the first time in the week since she'd been hooking she hadn't made her trap.

    2012 (original 1981), Alix Kates Shulman, On the Stroll: A Novel, Open Road Media

    2 more examples

    The money clip held thirty-nine hundred dollars, combined with her trap money, she had five thousand dollars for her man.

    2010, C. J. Land, A Hustler's Tale, page 54

    The code was to call a pimp and tell him you have his hoe plus turn over her night trap but that was bull because the HOE was out of his stable months before I copped her.

    2011, Shaheem Hargrove, Sharice Cuthrell, The Rise and Fall of a Ghetto Celebrity, page 55

present singular third person traps · participle present trapping · participle past trapped · past trapped

1. transitiveTo physically capture, to catch in a trap or traps, or something like a trap.

   to trap foxes

   1 more example

   As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.

   2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist

2. transitiveTo ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.

   She was trapped into admitting the truth.

   2 more examples

   Be careful not to trap your finger in the door.

   I trapp'd the foe.

   1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

3. transitiveTo provide with a trap.

   to trap a drain

   1 more example

   to trap a sewer pipe

4. intransitiveTo set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; to travel for the purpose of trapping.

   trap for beaver

   1 more example

   They trapped north along the river.

5. intransitiveslangaeronauticsTo successfully land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.

   After three consecutive bolters, the pilot finally trapped successfully on the Nimitz.

   Antonyms: bolter

6. intransitiveTo leave suddenly, to flee.
7. intransitivecomputingTo capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it.
8. datedbusinessTo attend to and open and close a (trap-)door.

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:trap.

9. informaloffensiveslangsometimesOf a 'trap': to trick a (heterosexual) man into having sex, by appearing to be a woman.

   Straight cis men persist in believing that my transition is all about them—tricking them, trapping them, ruining them.

   2016, Stefan Horlacher, Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan US, page 92

   2 more examples

   A "trap" is basically a trans girl or crossdresser who "tricks" or "traps" a straight male into getting aroused by them and then suddenly reveals their trans status.

   2019, Rachel Anne Williams, Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism, and Politics, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 32

   the Western pornography genre in which a straight man believes he is being seduced by a cis woman, and by the time he discovers she is trans has been “trapped” by his lust into having a sexual encounter with her.

   2020, Natalie Boero, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment, Little, Brown and Company, pages 211–212

10. intransitiveslangAfrican-American VernacularTo sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area.

    My kicks are wet from trappin' in the rain / Stole these Marshall bikes today / But don't walk in the bikers' lane / Or you're gonna catch a deafaz to the brain

    2024 June 3, “Wah Gwan Delilah” (3:13 from the start)performed by Snowd4y ft. Drake

plural traps

1. countableuncountableA dark coloured igneous rock; (now usually) any nongranitic igneous rock.

   Synonyms: trap rock, traprock

present singular third person traps · participle present trapping · participle past trapped · past trapped

1. To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).

   She was all trapped out in the gaudiest of clothes.

   2 more examples

   To decke his herce, and trap his tomb-blacke steed

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16

   [T]here she found her palfrey trapt / In purple blazon'd with armorial gold.

   1840, Alfred Tennyson, “Godiva”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 114

plural traps

1. slanganatomyThe trapezius muscle.

1. USabbreviationacronymuncountablelegislationAcronym of targeted regulation of abortion providers.

   In February, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand South Carolina's TRAP law, which imposes 27 pages of requirements on abortion clinics—providing a virtual blueprint for states that want to create constitutional clinic regulations.

   2001 September 28, Barry Yeoman, “The Quiet War on Abortion”, in Mother Jones

2. abbreviationacronymuncountableemployment lawAcronym of training-repayment-agreement provision.
3. abbreviationinitialismuncountablemedicineInitialism of twin reversed arterial perfusion.