Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Trap

Trap (trăp), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Trapped; p. pr. & vb. n. Trapping.] [Akin to OE. trappe trappings, and perhaps from an Old French word of the same origin as E. drab a kind of cloth.] To dress with ornaments; to adorn; — said especially of horses.

Steeds . . . that trapped were in steel all glittering. Chaucer.

To deck his hearse, and trap his tomb-black steed. Spenser.

There she found her palfrey trapped In purple blazoned with armorial gold. Tennyson.

Trap, n. [Sw. trapp; akin to trappa stairs, Dan. trappe, G. treppe, D. trap; — so called because the rocks of this class often occur in large, tabular masses, rising above one another, like steps. See Tramp.] (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.

Trap tufa, Trap tuff, a kind of fragmental rock made up of fragments and earthy materials from trap rocks.

Trap, a. Of or pertaining to trap rock; as, a trap dike.

Trap, n. [OE. trappe, AS. treppe; akin to OD. trappe, OHG. trapo; probably fr. the root of E. tramp, as that which is trod upon: cf. F. trappe, which is trod upon: cf. F. trappe, which perhaps influenced the English word.] 1. A machine or contrivance that shuts suddenly, as with a spring, used for taking game or other animals; as, a trap for foxes.

She would weep if that she saw a mouse Caught in a trap. Chaucer.

2. Fig.: A snare; an ambush; a stratagem; any device by which one may be caught unawares.

Let their table be made a snare and a trap. Rom. xi. 9.

God and your majesty Protect mine innocence, or I fall into The trap is laid for me! Shak.

3. 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.

4. The game of trapball.

5. 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.

6. A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for want of an outlet.

7. A wagon, or other vehicle. [Colloq.] Thackeray.

8. A kind of movable stepladder. Knight.

Trap stairs, a staircase leading to a trapdoor. — Trap tree (Bot.) the jack; - - so called because it furnishes a kind of birdlime. See 1st Jack.

Trap (trăp), v. t. [AS. treppan. See Trap a snare.]

1. To catch in a trap or traps; as, to trap foxes.

2. Fig.: To insnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap. "I trapped the foe." Dryden.

3. To provide with a trap; as, to trap a drain; to trap a sewer pipe. See 4th Trap, 5.

Trap, v. i. To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; as, to trap for beaver.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.