trap

v. i. To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; as, to trap for beaver. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Steeds . . . that trapped were in steel all glittering. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

To deck his hearse, and trap his tomb-black steed. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

There she found her palfrey trapped
In purple blazoned with armorial gold. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

She would weep if that she saw a mouse
Caught in a trap. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: A snare; an ambush; a stratagem; any device by which one may be caught unawares. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let their table be made a snare and a trap. Rom. xi. 9. [ 1913 Webster ]

God and your majesty
Protect mine innocence, or I fall into
The trap is laid for me! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The game of trapball. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for want of an outlet. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A wagon, or other vehicle. [ Colloq. ] Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. A kind of movable stepladder. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to trap rock; as, a trap dike. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Trap tufa,
Trap tuff, a kind of fragmental rock made up of fragments and earthy materials from trap rocks. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. trappan. See Trap, and cf. Trepan a snare. ] A snare; a stratagem; a trepan. See 3d Trepan. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Trapanned p. pr. & vb. n. Trapanning. ] To insnare; to catch by stratagem; to entrap; to trepan. [ 1913 Webster ]

Having some of his people trapanned at Baldivia. Anson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who trapans, or insnares. [ 1913 Webster ]