trap
n. countablen. a piece of equipment used to catch an animal, or a trick used to catch a person. You can also use it to describe a difficult situation that is hard to escape.
n. a device or tactic designed to capture, detect, or trick an organism or person. Often used metaphorically to describe a situation that limits one's freedom or choices.
The mouse avoided the trap and ate the cheese.
The police set a trap to catch the thieves as they entered the building.
Many young professionals find themselves in a debt trap, where high interest rates make it nearly impossible to pay off their initial loans.
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.
Borrowed from Swedish trapp (“step, stair, stairway”), from Middle Low German trappe (“stair, step”).
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”).
Clipping of trapezius.
Commonly used with the verbs 'set' or 'spring'.
- 01
fall into a trap
To make a mistake, a bad decision or act senselessly and get into an extremely difficult situation.
- 02
heffalump trap
A situation where an attempt to trap or outwit someone ends up backfiring on the original schemer.
- 03
honey trap
The use of a romantic or a sexual relationship to entice a person into revealing secret information.