tripwire
verbEtymology From trip + wire.
1
To set a tripwire mechanism in (a location).
tripwire
nounEtymology From trip + wire.
1
A cord or wire arranged so that when snagged or pulled by an intruder, it will trigger a detector or trap or a device, such as a land mine.
- Seeing the tripwire of a nearby bouncing Betty gave us cold chills, and we moved all the more slowly through the woods.
- They watched the two ghost-hunters run own the corridor and go crashing over the trip-wire.1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 119:
1 more example
- Thirteen people were injured in August 1957 when this Bristol freighter skidded on the runway at Southend Airport when landing with a flight from Calais. It ploughed through the boundary fence, but thankfully stopped short of the railway and the 1,500V overhead wires. A tripwire was installed on this section of Shenfield-Southend line to warn train drivers of instances such as this.2020 December 30, Tim Dunn, “The railway's mechanical marvels”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption:
2
Figuratively Any means of detecting intruders or attackers.
- The continued presence of U.S. troops as a tripwire force in Macedonia is an increasingly risky venture.1994, Diplomat, volume 5, page 67: