trap

• enPR: trăp, IPA^(key): /tɹæp/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [t̠ɹ̠̊˔æp]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [t̠ɹ̠̊˔ap]
  • (Northern England) IPA^(key): [t̠ɹ̠̊˔äp]
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): [t̠ɹ̠̊˔ɛp]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æp

From Middle English trappe, from Old English træppe, treppe (“trap, snare”) (also in betræppan (“to trap”)) from Proto-West Germanic *trappjā (“trap, snare”), from Proto-West Germanic *trappjan (“to step”), from Proto-Germanic *trapjaną (“to tread, stamp”), from Proto-Indo-European *drebʰ- (“to step, trip, trample”).

Cognate with Dutch trap (“trap, snare”), German Low German Trapp (“trap”). Akin also to West Frisian traap (“stepping, treading, stairway”), German Treppe (“step, stair”), Old English træppan (“to step, tread”). Connection to "step" is "that upon which one steps". French trappe and Spanish trampa are ultimately borrowings from Germanic.

trap (countable and uncountable, plural traps)

1. A 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.

   Synonym: snare

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

   • 1995, Richard Rhodes, quoting Curtis LeMay, “Scorpions in a Bottle”, in Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb‎^[1], New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 574:

     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.

2. A 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.

   • 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]:

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

3. (by extension, cartography, law, technical) A (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

4. A covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor.

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

5. (now rare) A kind of movable stepladder or set of stairs.
   • 1798 January 3, Edinburgh Weekly Journal, page 5:

     There is likewise a cabin trap with five steps.

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

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

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

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

   • 1867, The Children's hour, page 137:

     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.

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

     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.

   • 1887, George G. Green, Gordonhaven, page 114:

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

   • 1889 (original 1886), Willock, Rosetty Ends, 29:

     Had climbed up the trap-stair, and was busy potterin' aboot.

   • 1920, Soviet Russia, page 14:

     Tossing, the negro walks up the trap-ladder. But the emotions of a drunkard change quickly.

   • 1960, Bernard Guilbert Guerney, An Anthology of Russian Literature in the Soviet Period from Gorki to Pasternak:

     The stokers, breaking into excited talk, picked him up and dragged him up the trap ladder to the deck. The Canadian wiped the blood off Petka's injured forehead ...

6. A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
7. The game of trapball itself.
8. Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.

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

9. 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.
10. A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for lack of an outlet.
11. (aviation, military, slang) A 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.

12. (historical) A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.

    a horse and trap

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

      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.

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

    • 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:

      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.

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

      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!

13. (slang) A person's mouth.

    Keep your trap shut.

14. (slang) Synonym of vagina.
    • 1941, Henry Miller, Under the Roofs of Paris (Opus Pistorum), New York: Grove Press, published 1983, page 66:

      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.

15. (slang, archaic) A policeman.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

      “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.”

16. (in the plural, archaic) Belongings.
    • 1870, Mark Twain, Running for Governor:

      ...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)...

    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia‎^[2], New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 144:

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

17. (slang) A 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.

18. (gun sports) Trapshooting.
19. (geology) A geological structure that creates a petroleum reservoir.
20. (computing) An exception generated by the processor or by an external event.
21. (Australia, slang, historical) A mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush.
    • 1996, Judith Kapferer, Being All Equal: Identity, Difference and Australian Cultural Practice, page 84:

      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.

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

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

23. (US, slang, African-American Vernacular, also attributive) A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.

    trap phone

    trap car

24. (US, slang, African-American Vernacular, also attributive) An area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood.
    • 2018, Kyle T. Mays, Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America, page 93:

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

    • 2021 November 19, “Pink 3 Remix”‎^[3]performed by PCAJAY:

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

    • 2022 September 25, “Dork”‎^[4]performed by Aeterluv:

      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.

25. (music, uncountable) A genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass.

    Synonym: trap music

26. (slang, informal, usually offensive, usually derogatory) Someone with male-typical anatomy who passes as female.
    • 2011 May 27, “Re: anons target US chamber”, in alt.2600‎^[5] (Usenet):

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

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

      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 […]

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

      “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[.]"

    • (Can we date this quote?), Klei Nightwriter, 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?"

    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:trap.
27. (slang, informal, usually considered offensive) A 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.
    • 2013, One Piece: Grand Line 3 Point 5, page 47‎^[6]:

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

    • 2010 July 20, Antonio E. Gonzalez, “Re:Moyashimon Live Action”, in rec.arts.anime.misc‎^[7] (Usenet):

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

    • 2013 September 7, Bobbie Sellers, “Re: What's your favouite anime?”, in rec.arts.manga‎^[8] (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.

28. (slang, uncountable) The money earned by a prostitute for a pimp.
    • 2010, C. J. Land, A Hustler's Tale, page 54:

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

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

      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.

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

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

(antonym(s) of “aircraft-carrier landing”): bolter

trap (third-person singular simple present traps, present participle trapping, simple past and past participle trapped)

1. (transitive) To physically capture, to catch in a trap or traps, or something like a trap.

   to trap foxes

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

     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.

2. (transitive) To ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
   • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     I trapp'd the foe.

3. (transitive) To provide with a trap.

   to trap a drain

   to trap a sewer pipe

4. (intransitive) To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; to travel for the purpose of trapping.

   trap for beaver

   They trapped north along the river.

5. (aviation, military, slang, intransitive) To successfully land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear.

   Antonym: bolter

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

6. (intransitive) To leave suddenly, to flee.
7. (computing, intransitive) To capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it.
8. (mining, dated) To attend to and open and close a (trap-)door.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:trap.
9. (slang, informal, sometimes offensive) Of a 'trap': to trick a (heterosexual) man into having sex, by appearing to be a woman.
   • 2016, Stefan Horlacher, Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan US, page 92:

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

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

     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.

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

     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.

10. (intransitive, African-American Vernacular, slang) To sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area.
    • 2024 June 3, “Wah Gwan Delilah” (3:13 from the start)‎^[9]performed by Snowd4y ft. Drake:

      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

• entrap
• entrapment

• 1895, William Dwight Whitney, The Century Dictionary, page 6441, "trap": "A kind of movable ladder or steps: a ladder leading up to a loft."
• Richard W. Kroon (2010) “trap n. A type of character common to anime; one who is identified as male, but who is depicted as quite beautiful and feminine.”, in A/V A to Z An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms, page 702

Borrowed from Swedish trapp (“step, stair, stairway”), from Middle Low German trappe (“stair, step”).

trap (countable and uncountable, plural traps)

1. A dark coloured igneous rock, now used to designate any non-granitic igneous rock; trap rock.

• trappean
• trappous
• trappy

Akin to Middle English trappe (“trappings, gear”), and perhaps from Old Northern French trape, a byform of Old French drap, a word of the same origin as English drab (“a kind of cloth”).

trap (third-person singular simple present traps, present participle trapping, simple past and past participle trapped)

1. To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16:

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

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

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

• trapping

Clipping of trapezius.

trap (plural traps)

1. (slang, bodybuilding, anatomy) The trapezius muscle.

• trip-trap (etymologically unrelated)
• trap set (etymologically unrelated)

• “trap v.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

• part, part., patr-, prat, rapt, rtPA, tarp

From Dutch trap.

• IPA^(key): /trap/

trap (plural trappe, diminutive trappie)

1. stairs, staircase

Either a t- prefixed form of *rap, related to rrap (cf. Old Norse raptr (“rafter”), English raft), or akin to Proto-Germanic *trap-, compare Old High German trappa, trapa (“trap, snare”), German Treppe (“step, stair”), Old English treppan (“to step, tread”), English trap.

trap m

1. raft, ferry
2. thick grove
3. furrow, channel, ditch
4. path (on the mountains or in the woods)

• rrap

From Arabic تُرَاب (turāb).

trap m (plural trep)

1. earth, dust

• Borg, Alexander (2004) A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic (Arabic–English) (Handbook of Oriental Studies; I.70), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 174

• IPA^(key): [ˈtrap]

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *torpъ.

trap m inan

1. trot

   Synonyms: klus, poklus

trap m inan

1. trap shooting

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

trap

1. second-person singular imperative of trápit

• “trap”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “trap”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “trap”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

• IPA^(key): /trɑp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trap
• Rhymes: -ɑp

From Middle Dutch trappe, from Old Dutch *trappa, from Proto-West Germanic *trappā.

trap m (plural trappen, diminutive trapje n or trappetje n)

1. stairs, staircase
2. ladder
3. degree, grade
4. kick (act of kicking)

• Afrikaans: trap
• Berbice Creole Dutch: trapu
• Jersey Dutch: trāp
• Negerhollands: trap
• → Indonesian: terap
• → Japanese: タラップ (tarappu)
• → Lokono: taráfo
• → Russian: трап (trap)
• → Sranan Tongo: trapu, trappo
  • → Aukan: taapu
  • → Kari'na: tarapu
• → Warao: tarabha, taraja

From German Trappe, from Polish drop or Czech drop.

trap f (plural trappen, diminutive trapje n)

1. bustard

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

trap

1. inflection of trappen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

• prat

Borrowed from English trap. Doublet of rappu.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrɑp/, [ˈt̪rɑ̝p]
• IPA^(key): /ˈtræp/, [ˈt̪ræp]
• Rhymes: -ɑp
• Hyphenation^(key): trap

trap

1. trapshooting, trap (type of shooting sport)
2. (ice hockey) trap
   • 2016 October 23, Juha Hiitelä, “Pilaako trap-puolustus jääkiekon? [Is the Trap Defence Ruining Ice Hockey?]”, in Ilta-Sanomat‎^[10]:

Spelling:

Pronunciation /ˈt̪rɑp/:

Inflection of trap (type 5*B/risti) singular plural nominative trap trapit genitive trapin trappien partitive trappia trappeja accusative trap trapin trapit inessive trapissa trapeissa elative trapista trapeista illative trappiin trappeihin adessive trapilla trapeilla ablative trapilta trapeilta allative trapille trapeille essive trappina trappeina translative trapiksi trapeiksi abessive trapitta trapeitta instructive – trapein comitative – trappeineen

Pronunciation /ˈt̪ræp/:

Inflection of trap (type 5*B/risti) singular plural nominative trap trapit genitive trapin trappien partitive trappiä trappejä accusative trap trapin trapit inessive trapissä trapeissä elative trapistä trapeistä illative trappiin trappeihin adessive trapillä trapeillä ablative trapiltä trapeiltä allative trapille trapeille essive trappinä trappeinä translative trapiksi trapeiksi abessive trapittä trapeittä instructive – trapein comitative – trappeineen

• trappi

• “trap”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[11] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

trap m (uncountable)

1. trap (music style)

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrap/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: trap

Borrowed from Dutch trap.

trap m inan

1. (nautical) gangway, gangplank, gangboard, accommodation ladder

Borrowed from French trappe.

trap m inan

1. trapdoor

   Synonym: zapadnia

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

trap

1. second-person singular imperative of trapić

• trap in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• trap in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English trap.

trap m or f by sense (plural traps)

1. (offensive, derogatory) trap (a transvestite or trans woman)

trap m (uncountable)

1. trap (music)

Borrowed from German Trab.

trap n (plural trapuri)

1. trot (horse gait)

Borrowed from English trap.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾap/ [ˈt̪ɾap]
• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: trap

trap m (uncountable)

1. trap (music)

Borrowed from English trap.

trap m (plural trapiau or trapau or traps)

1. trap, snare

   Synonym: magl

2. (vehicles) trap (cart drawn by a pony)

• (North Wales) trol (“cart”)
• (South Wales) cart (“cart”)
• men, wagen (“wagon”)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “trap”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies