trap

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A contrivance for catching and holding animals, as a concealed pit or a clamplike device that springs shut suddenly.
2. n. A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person.
3. n. A confining or undesirable circumstance from which escape or relief is difficult: fell into poverty's trap.
4. n. A device for sealing a passage against the escape of gases, especially a U-shaped or S-shaped bend in a drainpipe that prevents the return flow of sewer gas by means of a water barrier.
5. n. Sports A device that hurls clay pigeons into the air in trapshooting.
6. n. Sports A land hazard or bunker on a golf course; a sand trap.
7. n. Sports A measured length of roadway over which electronic timers register the speed of a racing vehicle, such as a dragster.
8. n. Baseball See web.
9. n. Sports A defensive strategy or play, as in basketball or hockey, in which two or more defenders converge on an offensive player shortly after the player gains possession of the ball or puck.
10. n. Sports The act of trapping a soccer ball.
11. n. Football A running play in which the ball carrier advances through a hole in the defensive line created by allowing a defensive lineman to penetrate the backfield.
12. n. A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.
13. n. A trapdoor.
14. n. Music Percussion instruments, such as snare drums and cymbals, especially in a jazz band.
15. n. Slang The human mouth.
16. v. To catch in a trap; ensnare. See Synonyms at catch.
17. v. To prevent from escaping or getting free: was trapped in the locked attic.
18. v. To deceive or trick by mans of a scheme or plan.
19. v. To seal off (gases) by a trap.
20. v. To furnish with traps or a trap.
21. v. Sports To catch (a ball) immediately after it has hit the ground.
22. v. Sports To gain control of (a moving soccer ball) by allowing it to hit and bounce off a part of the body other than the arm or hand.
23. v. To set traps for game.
24. v. To engage in trapping furbearing animals.
25. n. Personal belongings or household goods. Often used in the plural.
26. v. To furnish with trappings.
27. n. Any of several dark, fine-grained igneous rocks often used in making roads.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A contrivance, as a pitfall or some mechanical device that shuts suddenly, often by means of a spring, used for taking game and other animals.
2. n. A device for confining and suddenly releasing or tossing into the air objects to be shot at, as live pigeons or glass balls.
3. n. A kind of fish-net used especially in Narragansett Bay, consisting of an oblong inclosure of netting on three sides and at the bottom, anchored securely by the side of the channel. Into this the fish enter, and, the bottom of the net being lifted to the surface at the open end, they are penned in and driven into a lateral inclosure, where they are kept until needed.
4. n. A double-curved pipe, or a U-shaped section of a pipe, with or without valves, serving to form a water-seal to prevent the passage of air or gases through a pipe with which it is connected. Traps are made in a great variety of shapes, the aim being in all to cause a portion of liquid to lodge in a depression and form a seal. The most common forms are without valves. Air-pipes used in connection with traps (see the figures) not only conduct away foul gases, but prevent any regurgitation of gas through the water or siphoning out of the water-seal resulting from changes of pressure in the soil-pipe, such as sometimes occurs in unventilated traps, undue pressure in which causes the gas to pass the water-seal, while a very slight fall below atmospheric pressure causes the water to siphon over into the soil-pipe and thus destroy the seal Various special forms are called gas-traps, grease-traps, etc. Also called trapping.
5. n. A piece of wood, somewhat in the shape of a shoe, hollowed at the heel, and moving on a pivot, in which the ball is placed in playing trap-ball; also, the game itself. See trap-ball.
6. n. A trap-door.
7. n. Any small complicated structure, especially one that is out of order; a rickety thing: so called in contempt. Compare rattletrap.
8. n. A carriage.
9. n. Any device or contrivance to betray one into speech or act, or to catch one unawares; an ambush; a stratagem.
10. n. Contrivance; craft.
11. n. A sheriff's officer, or a policeman.
12. To catch in a trap: as. to trap foxes or beaver.
13. To insnare; take by stratagem: applied to persons.
14. To capture (fish) by means of a trap or trap-net.
15. To put in a trap and release to be shot at, as pigeons or glass balls.
16. In plumbing, to furnish with a trap.
17. Theat., to furnish (a stage) with the requisite traps for the plays to be performed.
18. To stop and hold, as the shuttle of a loom in the warp, or gas, a liquid, heat, etc., by an obstruction or impervious or sealed inclosure, as in the case of liquids or gases, or by insulating substances, as with heat or electricity; specifically, to stop and hold by a trap for the purpose of removing, as air carried forward by or entangled in water flowing through pipes, etc., water deposited from compressed atmospheric air when cooled, or condensed from steam in the passage of the latter through pipes, or air from pipes or receptacles into or through which steam is to be passed.
19. To set traps for game: as, to trap for beaver.
20. To handle or work the trap in a shooting-match.
21. To become stopped or impeded, as steam through accumulation of condensed water in a low part of a horizontal pipe, or in a steam-radiator by the presence of air which cannot escape, or the flow of water through a siphon by accumulation of air in the upper part of the bend, etc.
22. n. A kind of movable ladder or steps; a ladder leading up to a loft.
23. n. In geology, any dark-colored rock having more or less of a columnar structure and apparently volcanic or eruptive in origin. It is the old and more or less metamorphosed eruptive rocks, and especially the various forms of basalt, which are most commonly thus designated. The name is a convenient one for use before the exact nature of the rock in question has been ascertained by microscopic examination.
24. n. A horse-cloth; an ornamental cloth or housing for a horse; ornamental harness; a trapping: usually in the plural.
25. n. plural Belongings; appurtenances; impedimenta: used frequently of baggage.
26. To furnish with trapping or ornamental housing, or necessary or usual harness or appurtenances, especially when these are of an ornamental character.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.
2. n. A trick or arrangement designed to catch someone in a more general sense.
3. n. A covering over a hole or opening; a trapdoor.
4. n. A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball; the game of trapball itself.
5. n. Any device used to hold and suddenly release an object.
6. n. A bend, sag, or other device in a waste-pipe arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents the escape of noxious gases, but permits the flow of liquids.
7. n. A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for want of an outlet.
8. n. historical A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.
9. n. this sense?) A kind of movable stepladder.
10. n. slang A person's mouth.
11. n. plural belongings
12. n. slang Short for trapezius muscle in bodybuilding
13. n. sports Short for trapshooting.
14. n. this sense?) (slang, pejorative) A person who crossdresses as a female; a transvestite or transsexual.
15. n. computing An exception generated by the processor.
16. n. Australia, slang, historical A mining license inspector during the Australian gold rush.
17. n. US, slang, informal, African American Vernacular A residential building where drugs are manufactured or sold.
18. v. transitive To catch in a trap or traps; as, to trap foxes.
19. v. transitive To ensnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
20. v. transitive To provide with a trap; as, to trap a drain; to trap a sewer pipe.
21. v. intransitive To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; as, to trap for beaver.
22. v. intransitive To leave suddenly, to flee.
23. v. computing (intransitive) To capture (e.g. an error) in order to handle or process it.
24. n. A dark coloured igneous rock, now used to designate any non-volcanic, non-granitic igneous rock; trap rock.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To dress with ornaments; to adorn; -- said especially of horses.
2. n. (Geol.) An old term rather loosely used to designate various dark-colored, heavy igneous rocks, including especially the feldspathic-augitic rocks, basalt, dolerite, amygdaloid, etc., but including also some kinds of diorite. Called also trap rock.
3. adj. Of or pertaining to trap rock.
4. n. A machine or contrivance that shuts suddenly, as with a spring, used for taking game or other animals.
5. n. Fig.: A snare; an ambush; a stratagem; any device by which one may be caught unawares.
6. n. A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball. It consists of a pivoted arm on one end of which is placed the ball to be thrown into the air by striking the other end. Also, a machine for throwing into the air glass balls, clay pigeons, etc., to be shot at.
7. n. The game of trapball.
8. n. A bend, sag, or partitioned chamber, in a drain, soil pipe, sewer, etc., arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents passage of air or gas, but permits the flow of liquids.
9. n. A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for want of an outlet.
10. n. colloq. A wagon, or other vehicle.
11. n. A kind of movable stepladder.
12. v. To catch in a trap or traps.
13. v. Fig.: To insnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.
14. v. To provide with a trap. See 4th Trap, 5.
15. v. To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. something (often something deceptively attractive) that catches you unawares
2. n. the act of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise
3. v. place in a confining or embarrassing position
4. v. catch in or as if in a trap
5. n. informal terms for the mouth
6. n. a device in which something (usually an animal) can be caught and penned
7. n. a hazard on a golf course
8. v. hold or catch as if in a trap
9. n. drain consisting of a U-shaped section of drainpipe that holds liquid and so prevents a return flow of sewer gas
10. n. a light two-wheeled carriage
11. v. to hold fast or prevent from moving
12. n. a device to hurl clay pigeons into the air for trapshooters