[f. FLY sb.1 + TRAP.]
1. A trap to catch flies.
1835. in Ogilvie, Suppl.
1859. J. Lang, Wand. India, 382. A fly-trap which he haa that morning invented; a ginger-beer or soda-water bottle half filled with soap suds and the opening besmeared with honey or moistened sugar.
2. A fly-catching plant, esp. Apocynum androsæmifolium. Venus’s fly-trap = Dionæa muscipula.
1774. Goldsm., Hist. Earth, VIII. V. viii. 162. The flower, which goes by the name of the fly-trap, seems to close upon the flies that light upon it, and that attempt to rifle it of its honey.
1776. J. Lee, Bot., 276. Dionæa, Venus’s Fly-trap.
1841. in Maunder, Sci. & Lit. Treasury, Flytrap, in botany, a species of sensitive plant, the Dionæa muscipula, or Venus’ Fly-trap; the leaves of which consist of two lobes, that have the property of closing when irritated within, and consequently of seizing any insects which happen to light on them.
3. slang. The mouth.
c. 1795. M. G. Lewis, in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1798), I. 323.
| The bride shuts her fly-trap; the stranger complies, | |
| And his wig from his phiz deigns to pull. | |
| Adzooks! what a squall Sally gave through surprise! | |
| Like a pig that was stuck, how she open’d her eyes, | |
| When she recognis’d Jollup’s bare skull! |
