trap

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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.

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

   “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. (countable, uncountable)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.”

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

3. (broadly, countable, uncountable)A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.

   “trap street”

4. (countable, derogatory, informal, offensive, slang, sometimes, uncountable, usually)A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.

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

   “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 […]”

   ““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[.]"”

   “, 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?"”

5. (countable, informal, slang, uncountable)A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense; a snare.

   “Bridget is the super trap”

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

   “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.”

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

6. (countable, uncountable)An exception generated by the processor or by an external event.
7. (countable, uncountable)Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.

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

8. (countable, uncountable)Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.

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

9. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.

   “There is likewise a cabin trap with five steps.”

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

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

   “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.”

   “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.”

10. (countable, uncountable)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.
11. (countable, uncountable)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.
12. (countable, uncountable)A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
13. (countable, uncountable)A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
14. (US, also, attributive, countable, slang, uncountable)A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.

    “trap phone”

    “trap car”

15. (US, also, attributive, countable, slang, uncountable)An area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood.

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

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

    “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.”

16. (uncountable)A genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass.
17. (countable, slang, uncountable)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.”

18. (countable, historical, uncountable)A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.

    “a horse and trap”

    “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.”

    “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.”

    “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.”

    “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!”

19. (countable, slang, uncountable)A person's mouth.

    “Keep your trap shut.”

20. (countable, slang, uncountable)Synonym of vagina.

    “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.”

21. (archaic, countable, slang, uncountable)A policeman.

    ““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.””

22. (archaic, countable, in-plural, uncountable)Belongings.

    “...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)...”

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

23. (countable, slang, uncountable)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.”

24. (countable, uncountable)Trapshooting.
25. (Australia, countable, historical, slang, uncountable)A mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush.

    “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.”

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

26. (slang, uncountable)The money earned by a prostitute for a pimp.

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

    “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.”

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

27. (countable, uncountable)A dark coloured igneous rock, now used to designate any non-granitic igneous rock; trap rock.
28. (slang)The trapezius muscle.
29. (US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable)Acronym of targeted regulation of abortion providers.

    “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.”

30. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable)Acronym of training-repayment-agreement provision.
31. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of twin reversed arterial perfusion.

verb

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

   “to trap foxes”

   “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.

   “Be careful not to trap your finger in the door.”

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

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

6. (intransitive)To leave suddenly, to flee.
7. (intransitive)To capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it.
8. (dated)To attend to and open and close a (trap-)door.

   “For quotations using this term, see Citations:trap.”

9. (informal, offensive, slang, sometimes)Of a 'trap': to trick a (heterosexual) man into having sex, by appearing to be a woman.

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

   “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.”

   “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, slang)To sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area.

    “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”

11. To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).

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

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