trapan

noun

1. An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick.

   “As for all other Pretences, they are nothing but Death and Damnation, dreſſed up in Fair VVords and Falſe Shevvs; nothing but Ginns, and Snares, and Trepans for Souls; Contrived by the Devil, and Managed by ſuch as the Devil ſets on VVork.”

   “[A] Man ſhould fix and fore-arm his Mind vvith this ſettled Perſvvaſion, that, during that Commotion of his Blood and Spirits, in vvhich Paſſion properly conſiſts, vvhatſoever is offered to the Imagination in favour of it, tends only to deceive his Reaſon. It is indeed a real Trapan upon it; feeding it vvith Colours, and Appearances, inſtead of Arguments; […]”

   “But novv has this little Embryo Strength enough to thruſt itſelf into the VVorld? To hold up its Head, and to maintain its Courſe to a perfect Maturity, againſt all the Aſſaults and Batteries of Intemperance; all the Snares and Trapans that Common Life lays in its VVay to extinguiſh and ſuppreſs it?”

   “Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept this man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, […]”

2. (archaic, obsolete)A person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim; a fraudster, a swindler, a trickster.

   “[O]ld associates who had once thought him [Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston] a man of dauntless courage and spotless honour, […] now pronounced that he was at best a meanspirited coward, and hinted their suspicions that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan.”

3. (alt-of, alternative, transitive)Alternative spelling of trepan (“surgical instrument used to remove a small section of bone, usually from the skull; tool used to bore through rock, etc.”).

verb

1. (transitive)To catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; to ensnare, to trap.

   “Each of 'em has a ſev'ral Gin, / To catch Intelligences in. / Some by the Noſe vvith fumes trapan 'em, / As Dunſtan did the Devil's Grannum.”

   “"I cannot think," he said, after a moment's pause, "that the fellow means to trepan us; and in any event, I trust we should have no difficulty in forcing the door, or otherwise making an escape.[…]"”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim; to defraud, to ensnare, to entrap, to swindle.

   “[…] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe.”

   “And haſt thou trepan'd me into a Tabernacle of the Godly? Is this Pious Boarding-houſe a place for me, thou vvicked Varlet?”

   “[H]e hoped he did not intend to make uſe of him to trepan a man to his ruin.”

   “The Spaniſh Captain, tho' ſurpriz'd vvith the Stratagem that had brought him thus into the Hands of his Enemies, and greatly enrag'd in his Mind at being circumvented, and trapann'd out of his Ship, yet ſhevv'd a great Preſence of Mind under his Misfortune; […]”

   “[H]e ſcorns to make Miſtake paſs for Payment, or to lie upon the Catch to trapan his Neighbour; in a vvord, that he is a fair, dovvnright, honeſt Man, God has bleſt him, and every Body gives him a good VVord.”

3. (alt-of, alternative, transitive)Alternative spelling of trepan (“to cut through bone, usually the skull, using a trepan (etymology 2, noun sense); to create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material”)