trepan

plural trepans

1. A tool used to bore through rock when sinking shafts.
2. medicineA surgical instrument used to remove a circular section of bone from the skull; a trephine.

present singular third person trepans · participle present trepanning · participle past trepanned · past trepanned

1. transitivebusinessTo create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material remaining by less expensive means.
2. medicineTo use a trepan; to trephine.

plural trepans

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of trapan (“act of entrapping or tricking; thing which entraps or tricks; (archaic or obsolete) person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim”)

   Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept this man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, […]

   1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 159

   2 more examples

   As for all other Pretences, they are nothing but Death and Damnation, dreſſed up in Fair VVords and Falſe Shevvs; nothing but Ginns, and Snares, and Trepans for Souls; Contrived by the Devil, and Managed by ſuch as the Devil ſets on VVork.

   1661 December 19 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar); first published 1698, Robert South, “False Foundations Removed, and True Ones Laid for such Wise Builders as Design to Build for Eternity. In a Sermon Preached at St. Mary’s, Oxon, before the University, Decem. 10. 1661.”, in Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume III, London: […] Tho[mas] Warren for Thomas Bennet […], →OCLC, pages 207–208

   [O]ld associates who had once thought him [Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston] a man of dauntless courage and spotless honour, […] now pronounced that he was at best a meanspirited coward, and hinted their suspicions that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan.

   1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XVII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume IV, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 32

present singular third person trepans · participle present trepanning · participle past trepanned · past trepanned

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of trapan (“to catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; (figurative) to trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim”)

   O fie! Sir Peter,—vvhat, join in a plot to trepan my brother!

   1777 May 8 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The School for Scandal; a Comedy; […], Dublin: [s.n.], published 1780, →OCLC, Act IV, scene [ii], page 58

   5 more examples

   And haſt thou trepan'd me into a Tabernacle of the Godly? Is this Pious Boarding-houſe a place for me, thou vvicked Varlet?

   1677 (date written), John Dryden, The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1

   [H]e hoped he did not intend to make uſe of him to trepan a man to his ruin.

   a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, “Book III. Of the Rest of King Charles II’s Reign, from the Year 1673 to the Year 1685, in which He Died.”, in [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], editor, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC, page 413

   Among his men I recollected one Cordus, a gentleman's ſon from Hamburgh, in which character I had knovvn him, and vvho had been trepanned into the VVeſt India Company's ſervice by the crimps or ſilver-coopers as a common ſoldier.

   1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XVII, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume II, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 28

   No, Sir, I vvill not be alone vvith you; you have infamouſly trepanned me from my friends, and I inſiſt upon being carried back to my mother, or rather left here, for vvith you I vvill not travel.

   1798, Charlotte Smith, chapter V, in The Young Philosopher: […], volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, page 108

   "I cannot think," he said, after a moment's pause, "that the fellow means to trepan us; and in any event, I trust we should have no difficulty in forcing the door, or otherwise making an escape.[…]"

   1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 163