traps


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trap 1

 (trăp)
n.
1. A contrivance for catching and holding animals, as a concealed pit or a clamplike device that springs shut suddenly.
2. A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person.
3. A confining or undesirable circumstance from which escape or relief is difficult: fell into poverty's trap.
4. 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. Sports
a. A device that hurls clay pigeons into the air in trapshooting.
b. A land hazard or bunker on a golf course; a sand trap.
c. traps A measured length of roadway over which electronic timers register the speed of a racing vehicle, such as a dragster.
6. Baseball See web.
7. Sports
a. 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.
b. The act of trapping a soccer ball.
8. 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.
9. A light two-wheeled carriage with springs.
10. A trapdoor.
11. traps Music Percussion instruments, such as snare drums and cymbals, especially in a jazz band.
12. Slang The human mouth.
v. trapped, trap·ping, traps
v.tr.
1. To catch in a trap; ensnare.
2. To prevent from escaping or getting free: was trapped in the locked attic.
3. To deceive or trick by means of a scheme or plan. See Synonyms at catch.
4. To seal off (gases) by a trap.
5. To furnish with traps or a trap.
6. Sports
a. To catch (a ball) immediately after it has hit the ground.
b. 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.
v.intr.
1. To set traps for game.
2. To engage in trapping furbearing animals.
[Middle English, from Old English træppe.]

trap 2

 (trăp) Archaic
n.
often traps Personal belongings or household goods.
tr.v. trapped, trap·ping, traps
To furnish with trappings.
[Middle English trap, trapping, perhaps alteration of Old French drap, cloth, from Late Latin drappus.]

trap 3

 (trăp)
n.
Any of several dark, fine-grained igneous rocks often used in making roads.
[Swedish trapp, from trappa, step, from Middle Low German trappe.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

traps

(træps)
pl n
belongings; luggage
[C19: probably shortened from trappings]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Traps

 articles of dress; personal effects and belongings, 1813.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in classic literature ?
At times, he may be seen with his traps on his shoulder, buffeting his way across rapid streams, amidst floating blocks of ice: at other times, he is to be found with his traps swung on his back clambering the most rugged mountains, scaling or descending the most frightful precipices, searching, by routes inaccessible to the horse, and never before trodden by white man, for springs and lakes unknown to his comrades, and where he may meet with his favorite game.
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They were fitted out with traps, arms, ammunition, horses, and every other requisite, and were to trap upon the upper part of Mad River, and upon the neighboring streams of the mountains.
According to agreement they were fitted out with horses, traps, ammunition, and everything requisite for their undertaking, and were to bring in all the peltries they should collect, either to this trading post, or to the establishment at the mouth of Columbia River.
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The advance was more rapid now, for Binu Charley placed the captive bushman in front of him and made him clear the run-way of traps. Once, at a sharp turn where a man's shoulder would unavoidably brush against a screen of leaves, the bushman displayed great caution as he spread the leaves aside and exposed the head of a sharp-pointed spear, so set that the casual passer-by would receive at the least a nasty scratch.
The Binu man traced out the mechanics of the trap, and exposed the hidden fibre in the tangled undergrowth that at contact with Koogoo's foot had released the taut bow.
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I still remember waiting with bated breath for Raffles to ask Maguire if he were not afraid of burglars, and Maguire replying that he had a trap to catch the cleverest cracksman alive, but flatly refusing to tell us what it was.
In that case I was resolved to tell him that Raffles and I had made a bet about his burglar trap, and that I had come to see who had won.
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It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.
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Soon he heard the rumble of the trap, and saw from behind the trees how Vassenka, sitting in the hay (unluckily there was no seat in the trap) in his Scotch cap, was driven along the avenue, jolting up and down over the ruts.
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The open trap lay directly in his path, and his discovery of it would lead instantly to his discovery of me.
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This year they had come to trap live specimens for a European zoological garden, and today they were approaching a trap which they had set in the hope of capturing a specimen of the large baboons that frequented the neighborhood.
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There was only one other place in the river for a fish-trap, but, when my father and I and a dozen other men started to make a very large trap, the guards came from the big grass-house we had built for Dog-Tooth.
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