entrap
verb/ɪnˈtɹæp/
Etymology From Middle French entrapper, entraper, from Old French entraper, antraper (“catch in a trap”), equivalent to en- + trap. Compare Middle English bitrappen, from Old English betræppan (“to catch in a trap, entrap”), from the same West Germanic source (see Modern English betrap).
1
To catch in a trap or snare.
- Then noble ſouldiers to intrap these theeues […] We haue our Cammels laden al with gold: Which you that be but common ſouldiers, Shall fling in euery corner of the field: And while the baſe borne Tartars take it vp, You […] Shall maſſacre those greedie minded ſlaues.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:
- He goes home to complain to his father, and the two of them decide on a plan to entrap Enkidu.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 189:
2
To lure (someone), either into a dangerous situation, or into performing an illegal act.
- Derived terms
- entrapment, entrappingly, nonentrapped, unentrapped