Idiom
honey trap
Meaning
The use of a romantic or a sexual relationship to entice a person into revealing secret information.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The spy fell for a honey trap.”
“The agent realized too late that his new acquaintance was actually a honey trap designed to steal classified documents.”
“The intelligence agency orchestrated a sophisticated honey trap, successfully compromising the diplomat by exploiting his personal vulnerabilities to secure the state secrets.”
Examples
simple
“The spy fell for a honey trap.”
contextual
“The agent realized too late that his new acquaintance was actually a honey trap designed to steal classified documents.”
complex
“The intelligence agency orchestrated a sophisticated honey trap, successfully compromising the diplomat by exploiting his personal vulnerabilities to secure the state secrets.”
Origin
Popularized by John le Carré in the novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974).
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated