[ME. trappen:—OE. *træppan in betræppan, (be)treppan (BETRAP), f. træp, TRAP sb.1 Cf. also ATTRAP, ENTRAP (from F.), which may have contributed to the Eng. vb.]
I. Transitive senses.
1. To catch in or as in a trap, entrap, ensnare.
[a. 900. Kentish Gloss., 211. (Bosw. T.). Hio [tr]e[p]te, inretivit.]
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xiii. 371. Me thoght with a gyn A fatt shepe he trapt, bot he mayde no dyn.
1530. Palsgr., 761/1. I trappe, I take one by sleyght, or take any beest in a trappe or snare, je attrappe and je trappe.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, xxiii. 211. Three persons are safer than a large number for trapping beaver.
1860. Warter, Sea-board, II. 39. Wheat-ears, which all shepherds … trap on the Downs.
b. fig.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 218. Thus he, whom gold hath overset, Was trapped in his oghne net.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 2099, in Macro Plays, 140. & þou, deuyl, with wyckyd wyl, In paradys trappyd us with tresun.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxix. (Percy Soc.), 143. Howe that my hart by Venus was trapt, With a snare of love.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. XI. 556. The Duke knowing, that … this was only a device to make him run into some error,… was not easie to be trap’d that way.
a. 1700. Dryden, trans. Ovid’s Met., XIII. Sp. Ajax & Ulysses, 340. With ambush’d arms I trapp’d the foe, or tired with false alarms.
1885–94. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, July, v. They alert with joy to see her trapt, Launch’d forth amain.
c. fig. with ref. to speech: To catch, pull up, or detect in a mis-statement, Also Sc. To detect and correct a classmate in an erroneous answer, or to answer a question which he cannot and ‘take him down’ (TAKE v. 80 b (d)).
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 136. That contradicts their Doctrine, and traps them in a lye.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 601. The Jews having every Day Opportunity of conversing with them, they might have easily trapp’d them in their Relations.
1825. Jamieson, To trap, to correct in saying a lesson at school, so as to have a right to take the place of him who is thus corrected.
1895. Crockett, Bog-Myrtle & Peat, 163. He had promptly ‘trapped’ his way to the head of the class…. The operation of ‘trapping’ was simply performed. When a mistake was made in pronunciation, repetition, or spelling, any pupil further down the class held out his hand…. The ‘trapper,’ providing always that his emendation was accepted, was instantly promoted to the place of the ‘trapped.’
2. To furnish with traps; to set (a place) with a trap or traps (in quot. 1908 with arrangements for detecting law-breaking motorists, TRAP sb.1 1 c).
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., II. lviii. 251. They assume the right of hunting and trapping the streams and lakes.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 8 Dec., 1/1. The owners of motors are not content to take them week by week down the same road, especially when that road is so well ‘trapped’ as is the highway to the London-by-the-sea.
3. To furnish (a drain, etc.) with a trap or traps, to prevent the ascent of foul air or gas.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. X. 46. The drains to be trapped and ventilated.
1881. B. W. Richardson, in Gd. Words, XXII. 55. The chief drain has to be trapped outside the dwelling, a little way before it reaches the common sewer.
4. Chiefly Mech. To stop and hold or retain by a trap or contrivance for the purpose; to separate or remove by a trap:
e.g., to stop the shuttle of a loom in the warp; water, air, gas, heat in its passage; esp. anything suspended in water, or condensed from steam or gas, in a pipe.
II. Intransitive senses.
5. To practise catching wild animals in traps for their furs; also gen. to set traps for game.
1807. P. Gass, Jrnl., 78. Some Frenchmen who were out trapping caught 7 of them [beavers].
1817. J. Bradbury, Trav. Amer., 18, note. Soon after he … trapped in company with a hunter named Potts.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, xxiii. 210. I should like to come and trap on these waters all winter.
1894. Times, 10 Dec., 10/2. The provisions of the Ground Game Act had not been observed; tenants were allowed to trap how and when they liked.
1905. D. Wallace, Lure Labrador Wild, iii. 48. Tom Blake … had trapped at the … western end of Grand Lake.
6. To use, handle, or work a trap or traps.
a. (also with it) To use trap-doors on the stage in a theatrical performance. nonce-use.
1886. Sat. Rev., 2 Jan., 20/1. Kazrac and the Demon go down and come up trap after trap…. They should take a lesson of Mr. Conquest … (we know not whether or not that excellent artist still traps it).
b. To act as a ‘trapper’ in a coal-mine: see TRAPPER sb.2 2.
1842. [see TRAPPING vbl. sb.2].
1900. Daily News, 14 Feb., 3/2. ‘How long have you been trapping?’ ‘Since I come down pit, six months ago.’
c. To handle or work a trap in trap-shooting: see TRAP sb.1 4, TRAPPER sb.2 3.
