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.
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.1995, Richard Rhodes, quoting Curtis LeMay, “Scorpions in a Bottle”, in Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 574:
2
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!1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
3
Cartography, Engineering, Geography, Law, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, TechnicalBroadly A (usually fictional) location or feature originally added to a map to detect plagiarism and copyright violations by other map makers or map services.
And trust me you don't want to see a trap ether. I like my girls without a ding-a-ling.2011 May 27, “Re: anons target US chamber”, in alt.2600 (Usenet):
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 […]2020, jaye simpson, it was never going to be okay, Harbour Publishing, →ISBN:
2 more examples
“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[.]"2021, Coulsdon Writers, Back to the Writing, →ISBN, page 37:
, 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
Informal, Slang A fictional character from anime, or related media, who is coded as or has qualities typically associated with a gender other than the character's ostensible gender; otokonoko, josou.
Sometimes considered offensive
Bridget is the super trap2007 Weekend Reading: Bridget is straight by 8bit Brian of Destructoid, reply by batempo on 20 August 2007
Of course Kei would look like a young woman, that's how traps work!2010 July 20, Antonio E. Gonzalez, “Re:Moyashimon Live Action”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):
2 more examples
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.2013 September 7, Bobbie Sellers, “Re: What's your favouite anime?”, in rec.arts.manga (Usenet):
One way to spot a trap is to look for an adam's apple.2013, One Piece: Grand Line 3 Point 5, page 47:
6
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences An exception generated by the processor or by an external event.
7
Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.
They shot out of the school gates like greyhounds out of the trap.
8
A covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor.
Close the trap, would you, before someone falls and breaks their neck.
9
Archaic A kind of movable stepladder or set of stairs.
There is likewise a cabin trap with five steps.1798 January 3, Edinburgh Weekly Journal, page 5:
I have to bear my burthen up four traps, or ladders, before I get to the main road which leads to the pit bottom.1842, Ellison Jack (girl, age 11), quoted in The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines, page 48
4 more examples
They have very generally received the name of trap-rocks, because they often present the appearance of traps or stairs.1847, David Low, Elements of Practical Agriculture, page 37:
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.1867, The Children's hour, page 137:
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.1875, The Gardner: A Magazine of Horticulture and Floriculture, page 3:
Coming near the door, Scorgie cautioned quietness, and pointing to a trap stair he motioned Mr. Love and Donald to ascend to the loft.1887, George G. Green, Gordonhaven, page 114:
› A bend, sag, or other device in a waste-pipe…
10
A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for lack of an outlet.
11
Geography, Geology, Natural sciences A geological structure that creates a petroleum reservoir.
12
A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball.
13
The game of trapball itself.
14
US, Also, Slang A vehicle, residential building, or sidewalk corner where drugs are manufactured, packaged, or sold.
African-American Vernacular
trap phone
trap car
15
US, Also, Slang An area, especially of a city, with a low level of opportunity and a high level of poverty and crime; a ghetto; a hood.
African-American Vernacular
Maybe T.I was also making connection between fur trapping and living in the trap, or the hood.2018, Kyle T. Mays, Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America, page 93:
Stay in the trap like my name was McCaulk. Dumb-ahh nigger, I think he meant Culkin.2021 November 19, “Pink 3 Remix”performed by PCAJAY:
1 more example
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.2022 September 25, “Dork”performed by Aeterluv:
16
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A genre of hip-hop music, with half-time drums and heavy sub-bass.
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
Historical 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.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
3 more examples
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.1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 51”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
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.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
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!2023 March 8, Paul Salveson, “Fond farewells to two final trains...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 54:
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.1941, Henry Miller, Under the Roofs of Paris (Opus Pistorum), New York: Grove Press, published 1983, page 66:
“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.”1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
...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)...1870, Mark Twain, Running for Governor:
"Carry your traps out, Ma?" asked one of the passengers.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 144:
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.1996, Judith Kapferer, Being All Equal: Identity, Difference and Australian Cultural Practice, page 84:
Diggers were angered by frequent licence inspections and harassment by 'the traps' (the goldfield police).2006, Helen Calvert, Jenny Herbst, Ross Smith, Australia and the World: Thinking Historically, page 55:
26
Slang 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.2010, C. J. Land, A Hustler's Tale, page 54:
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.2011, Shaheem Hargrove, Sharice Cuthrell, The Rise and Fall of a Ghetto Celebrity, page 55:
1 more example
For the first time in the week since she'd been hooking she hadn't made her trap.2012 (original 1981), Alix Kates Shulman, On the Stroll: A Novel, Open Road Media
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.
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.2013 July-August, Stephen P. Lownie, David M. Pelz, “Stents to Prevent Stroke”, in American Scientist:
2
To ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
Be careful not to trap your finger in the door.
I trapp'd the foe.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
3
To provide with a trap.
to trap a drain
to trap a sewer pipe
4
To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; to travel for the purpose of trapping.
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.2016, Stefan Horlacher, Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan US, page 92:
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.2019, Rachel Anne Williams, Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism, and Politics, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 32:
1 more example
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.2020, Natalie Boero, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Body and Embodiment, Little, Brown and Company, pages 211–212:
10
Slang To sell illegal drugs, especially in a public area.
African-American Vernacular
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 brain2024 June 3, “Wah Gwan Delilah” (3:13 from the start)performed by Snowd4y ft. Drake:
Etymology 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”).
1
To dress with ornaments; to adorn (especially said of horses).
To decke his herce, and trap his tomb-blacke steed1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16:
[T]here she found her palfrey trapt / In purple blazon'd with armorial gold.1840, Alfred Tennyson, “Godiva”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 114: