Definition

1. Noun:

   • A device for catching animals: A mechanical or structural device designed to capture and hold an animal, often by snapping shut or confining it.
   • A trick or scheme to deceive someone: A situation or plan that is intended to trick or deceive a person, leading them into a disadvantageous position.
   • A hazard or difficult situation: An unexpected problem or hidden difficulty, such as a tricky question.
   • A light, two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage: A specific type of vehicle.
   • (Informal) The mouth: Used in casual speech to refer to a person's mouth.

2. Verb:

   • To catch in a trap: To capture an animal using a trap.
   • To prevent from escaping: To hold something or someone in a place or situation from which it is difficult to escape.
   • To trick or deceive: To cause someone to become caught in a deceptive or inescapable situation.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • The hunter checked the trap he had set for rabbits.
  • The question was a clever trap designed to make the witness contradict himself.
  • Be careful of the sand trap on the seventh hole of the golf course.

• Verb:

  • They trap beavers for their fur.
  • The fallen tree trapped the hiker's leg.
  • She felt trapped in her dead-end job.

Advanced Usage

• "to set a trap": To prepare a trap for use.
  • The farmer set a trap for the mice in the barn.
• "to fall into a trap": To be deceived or caught by a trick.
  • Many investors fell into the trap of buying at the peak of the market.
• "to be trapped": To be in a state of confinement or a difficult situation with no easy escape.
  • The miners were trapped underground for three days.

Variants and Related Words

• Trapper (n): A person who traps wild animals, especially for their fur.
• Entrap (v): To catch in or as if in a trap; often implies trickery or deception by authorities.
• Trapping (n): The act of catching animals in traps. (Note: The plural "trappings" refers to outward signs or accessories associated with a particular status or role, e.g., ).
• Booby trap (n): A hidden trap designed to harm or surprise a person.
• Sand trap (n): A hazard on a golf course, also known as a bunker.

Synonyms

• Noun: Snare, pitfall, ambush, ruse, trick.
• Verb: Ensnare, entrap, catch, corner, pin.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Trap in: To cause something to be caught or held inside.
  • The design traps heat in the building.
• Trap into: To trick someone into doing or saying something.
  • The reporter trapped the politician into admitting his mistake.

Related Idioms

• Shut one's trap: (Informal, often rude) To stop talking; to be quiet.
  • He finally shut his trap after talking for an hour.
• Mind like a steel trap: Having a very quick and sharp intellect or memory.
  • The lawyer has a mind like a steel trap; she remembers every detail.

Noun

1. a hazard on a golf course
2. a light two-wheeled carriage
3. informal terms for the mouth
4. the act of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise
5. a device to hurl clay pigeons into the air for trapshooters
6. something (often something deceptively attractive) that catches you unawares
   • the exam was full of trap questions
   • it was all a snare and delusion
7. drain consisting of a U-shaped section of drainpipe that holds liquid and so prevents a return flow of sewer gas
8. a device in which something (usually an animal) can be caught and penned

Verb

1. to hold fast or prevent from moving
   • The child was pinned under the fallen tree
2. hold or catch as if in a trap
   • The gaps between the teeth trap food particles
3. catch in or as if in a trap
   • The men trap foxes
4. place in a confining or embarrassing position
   • He was trapped in a difficult situation