snare

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A trapping device, often consisting of a noose, used for capturing birds and small mammals.
• noun Something that lures or entangles the unwary.
• noun A surgical instrument with a wire loop controlled by a mechanism in the handle, used to remove growths, such as tumors and polyps.
• transitive verb To trap with or as if with a snare. synonym: catch.
• transitive verb To get hold or control of (something difficult to catch).
• noun Any of the wires or cords stretched across the lower drumhead of a snare drum so as to vibrate against it.
• noun A snare drum.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To catch with a snare or noose; net.
• Figuratively, to catch or take by guile; bring by cunning into unexpected evil, perplexity, or danger; entangle; entrap.
• To use snares; catch birds or other animals in snares.
• noun A string; a cord; specifically, in a side-drum, one of the strings of gut or rawhide that are stretched across the lower head so as to produce a rattling reverberation on it.
• noun A noose; a springe; a contrivance, consisting of a noose or set of nooses of cord, hair, wire, or the like, by which a bird or other animal may be entangled; a net; a gin.
• noun Figuratively, anything by which one is entangled, entrapped, or inveigled.
• noun In surgery, a light écraseur, consisting usually of a wire loop or noose, for removing tumors and the like.
• In surgery, to cut off by means of a snare.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To catch with a snare; to insnare; to entangle; hence, to bring into unexpected evil, perplexity, or danger.
• noun A contrivance, often consisting of a noose of cord, or the like, by which a bird or other animal may be entangled and caught; a trap; a gin.
• noun Hence, anything by which one is entangled and brought into trouble.
• noun The gut or string stretched across the lower head of a drum.
• noun (Med.) An instrument, consisting usually of a wireloop or noose, for removing tumors, etc., by avulsion.
• noun the smaller common military drum, as distinguished from the bass drum; -- so called because (in order to render it more resonant) it has stretched across its lower head a catgut string or strings.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A trap made from a loop of wire, string, or leather.
• noun rare A mental or psychological trap; usually in the phrase a snare and a delusion.
• noun veterinary A loop of cord used in obstetric cases, to hold or to pull a fetus from the mother animal.
• noun music A set of chains strung across the bottom of a drum to create a rattling sound.
• noun music A snare drum.
• verb to catch or hold, especially with a loop.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a small drum with two heads and a snare stretched across the lower head
• verb catch in or as if in a trap
• noun strings stretched across the lower head of a snare drum; they make a rattling sound when the drum is hit
• verb entice and trap
• noun a trap for birds or small mammals; often has a slip noose
• noun something (often something deceptively attractive) that catches you unawares
• noun a surgical instrument consisting of wire hoop that can be drawn tight around the base of polyps or small tumors to sever them; used especially in body cavities