Trap Definition

trăp

trapped, trapping, traps

noun

Any device for catching animals, as one that snaps shut tightly when stepped on, or a pitfall; gin, snare, etc.

Webster's New World

Any stratagem or ambush designed to catch or trick unsuspecting persons.

Webster's New World

A confining or undesirable circumstance from which escape or relief is difficult.

Fell into poverty's trap.

American Heritage

A device for sealing a passage against the escape of gases, especially a U-shaped or S-shaped bend in a drainpipe that prevents the return flow of sewer gas by means of a water barrier.

American Heritage

An apparatus for throwing disks into the air to be shot at in trapshooting.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

verb

trapped, trapping, traps

To catch in or as in a trap; entrap.

Webster's New World

To prevent from escaping or getting free.

Was trapped in the locked attic.

American Heritage

To hold back or seal off by a trap.

Webster's New World

To deceive or trick by means of a scheme or plan.

American Heritage

To cover, equip, or adorn with trappings; caparison.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Antonyms:
release
let-go

Other Word Forms of Trap

Noun

Singular:

trap

Plural:

traps

Origin of Trap

Middle English trappe, from Old English træppe, treppe (“trap, snare”) (also in betræppan (“to trap”)) from Proto-Germanic *trap-. Akin to Old High German trappa, trapa (“trap, snare”), Middle Dutch trappe (“trap, snare”), Middle Low German treppe (“step, stair”) (German Treppe "step, stair"), Old English treppan (“to step, tread”) and possibly Albanian trap "raft, channel, path". Connection to "step" is "that upon which one steps". French trappe and Spanish trampa are ultimately borrowings from Germanic.

From Wiktionary
Akin to Old English trappe (“trappings”), and perhaps from an Old French word of the same origin as English drab (“a kind of cloth”).

From Wiktionary
Middle English trap trapping perhaps alteration of Old French drap cloth from Late Latin drappus

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Swedish trapp from trappa step from Middle Low German trappe

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Swedish trapp, from trappa (“stair”).

From Wiktionary
Middle English from Old English træppe

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition