understand trap

verb

verb

Obsolete, Slang To be conscious of any trickery; to be alert to one's own interests, to know what's going on.

‘Yes! yes!’ said Mr Doughty, another tradesman, ‘we understand trap, and so does our good neighbour.’1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 345:
Chapter III: Of Peter Stuyvesant's expedition into the East Country, showing that though an old bird, he did not understand trap.1809, Washington Irving, A History of New York:

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