What does "trap" mean?
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.
Trap
/tɹæp/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: 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.
- Grammar: trap is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: ambush, snare, allure, allurement.
- Useful contrasts: advantage, assist, bolter.
- Usage evidence: Cheese often lures a mouse into a trap.
How to use "trap"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "trap" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "trap" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "trap" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "trap" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
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- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "trap" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 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. countable, uncountable
"I put down some traps in my apartment to try and deal with the mouse problem."
- 2 A dark coloured igneous rock, now used to designate any non-granitic igneous rock; trap rock. countable, uncountable
- 3 The trapezius muscle. slang
- 4 Acronym of targeted regulation of abortion providers. US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
"In February, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand South Carolina's TRAP law, which imposes 27 pages of requirements on abortion clinics—providing a virtual blueprint for states that want to create constitutional clinic regulations."
- 5 the act of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise wordnet
Show 34 more definitions
- 6 A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare. countable, uncountable
"Unfortunately she fell into the trap of confusing biology with destiny."
- 7 Acronym of training-repayment-agreement provision. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
- 8 a hazard on a golf course wordnet
- 9 A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.; A (usually fictional) location or feature originally added to a map to detect plagiarism and copyright violations by other map makers or map services. broadly, countable, uncountable
"trap street"
- 10 Initialism of twin reversed arterial perfusion. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
- 11 a device in which something (usually an animal) can be caught and penned wordnet
- 12 A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.; Someone with male-typical anatomy who passes as female. countable, derogatory, informal, offensive, slang, uncountable, usually
"And trust me you don't want to see a trap ether. I like my girls without a ding-a-ling."
- 13 a light two-wheeled carriage wordnet
- 14 A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.; 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. countable, informal, slang, uncountable
"One way to spot a trap is to look for an adam's apple."
- 15 a device to hurl clay pigeons into the air for trapshooters wordnet
- 16 An exception generated by the processor or by an external event. countable, uncountable
- 17 drain consisting of a U-shaped section of drainpipe that holds liquid and so prevents a return flow of sewer gas wordnet
- 18 Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object. countable, uncountable
"They shot out of the school gates like greyhounds out of the trap."
- 19 informal terms for the mouth wordnet
- 20 Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.; A covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor. countable, uncountable
"Close the trap, would you, before someone falls and breaks their neck."
- 21 something (often something deceptively attractive) that catches you unawares wordnet
- 22 Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.; A kind of movable stepladder or set of stairs. archaic, countable, uncountable
"There is likewise a cabin trap with five steps."
- 23 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.; A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for lack of an outlet. countable, uncountable
- 24 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.; A geological structure that creates a petroleum reservoir. countable, uncountable
- 25 A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball. countable, uncountable
- 26 A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.; The game of trapball itself. countable, uncountable
- 27 A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold. US, also, attributive, countable, slang, uncountable
"trap phone"
- 28 A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.; An area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood. US, also, attributive, countable, slang, uncountable
"Maybe T.I was also making connection between fur trapping and living in the trap, or the hood."
- 29 A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.; A genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass. US, also, attributive, slang, uncountable
- 30 A successful landing on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear. countable, slang, uncountable
"After 100 traps, the arresting cables have to be replaced to minimize the danger of a worn or fatigued cable snapping under an aircraft."
- 31 A light two-wheeled carriage with springs. countable, historical, uncountable
"a horse and trap"
- 32 A person's mouth. countable, slang, uncountable
"Keep your trap shut."
- 33 Synonym of vagina. countable, slang, uncountable
"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."
- 34 A policeman. archaic, countable, slang, uncountable
"“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.”"
- 35 Belongings. archaic, countable, in-plural, uncountable
"...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)..."
- 36 A cubicle (in a public toilet). countable, slang, uncountable
"I've just laid a cable in trap 2 so I'd give it 5 minutes if I were you."
- 37 Trapshooting. countable, uncountable
- 38 A mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush. Australia, countable, historical, slang, uncountable
"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."
- 39 The money earned by a prostitute for a pimp. slang, uncountable
"The money clip held thirty-nine hundred dollars, combined with her trap money, she had five thousand dollars for her man."
Verb
- 1 To physically capture, to catch in a trap or traps, or something like a trap. transitive
"to trap foxes"
- 2 To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).
"To decke his herce, and trap his tomb-blacke steed"
- 3 to hold fast or prevent from moving wordnet
- 4 To ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap. transitive
"Be careful not to trap your finger in the door."
- 5 catch in or as if in a trap wordnet
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 To provide with a trap. transitive
"to trap a drain"
- 7 hold or catch as if in a trap wordnet
- 8 To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; to travel for the purpose of trapping. intransitive
"trap for beaver"
- 9 to sell marijuana on a street corner wordnet
- 10 To successfully land an aircraft on an aircraft carrier using the carrier's arresting gear. intransitive, slang
"After three consecutive bolters, the pilot finally trapped successfully on the Nimitz."
- 11 place in a confining or embarrassing position wordnet
- 12 To leave suddenly, to flee. intransitive
- 13 To capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it. intransitive
- 14 To attend to and open and close a (trap-)door. dated
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:trap."
- 15 Of a 'trap': to trick a (heterosexual) man into having sex, by appearing to be a woman. informal, offensive, slang, sometimes
"Straight cis men persist in believing that my transition is all about them—tricking them, trapping them, ruining them."
- 16 To sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area. intransitive, slang
"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"
Example
"Cheese often lures a mouse into a trap."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "trap"?
Common synonyms include: ambush, snare, allure, allurement, ambuscade, ambuscade.
How do you use "trap" in a sentence?
Cheese often lures a mouse into a trap.
How do you pronounce "trap"?
Pronounced /tɹæp/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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 (“step, stair”), German Low German Trapp (“step, stair”). 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.
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Swedish trapp (“step, stair, stairway”), from Middle Low German trappe (“stair, step”).
Etymology 3
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”).
Etymology 4
Clipping of trapezius.