trapdoor

plural trapdoors · alternative trap door · alternative trap-door

1. A hinged or sliding door set into a floor or ceiling.

   Police found a trapdoor, leading to a basement where boxes labelled as containing dried goods held packages of phones wrapped up in foil, as well as £44,665 in cash.

   2026 September 25, Sonja Jessup, “How 'largest phone smuggling network' was uncovered”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 25 Sep 2026, retrieved 25 Sep 2026

   Synonyms: drop

2. entertainmentSuch a trap set into the floor of a stage to allow fast exits and entrances.
3. computingA secret method of obtaining access to a program or online system; a backdoor.
4. computingThe special information that permits the inverse of a trapdoor function to be easily computed.
5. businessA door in a level for regulating the ventilating current; a weather door.
6. engineeringA folding bolt in a rifle that flips up and forward to allow the cartridge to be loaded in the breech.

present singular third person trapdoors · participle present trapdooring · participle past trapdoored · past trapdoored · alternative trap door · alternative trap-door

1. transitivecomputingTo subvert (a cryptographic scheme) by means of a secret parameter that makes the trapdoor function easy to compute.
2. intransitivemedicineTo form a trapdoor deformity.