Obs. or arch. Also 7–8 trapan, (trappan). [A word of obscure and low origin, prob. originally a term of thieves’ or rogues’ slang. According to the known evidence, originally applied to a person in sense 1 below (quots. 1641, 1653). Thence arose the verb describing the action of such persons, TREPAN v.2, found in various constructions 1656–62. Hence, finally, a second use of the sb. as a name of the action, 1665, sense 2 here. The earlier spelling of the sb. was trapan, probably formed in some way from TRAP sb.1 or v.1 The change to trepan, seen first in the vb., may have been due to association with TREPAN v.1 (a much earlier and well-known word), of which TREPAN v.2 may have been supposed to be some sort of fig. application.
No F. trapan or trapaner in this sense is recognized by Littré, Hatz.-Darm., Cotgrave, Godefroy. Nor is there any reason to connect trapan with OProv. trapon ‘sorte de piège,’ nor with It. trapanare = TREPAN v.1]
1. A person who entraps or decoys others into actions or positions that may be to his advantage and to their ruin or loss. Also applied to an animal (quot. 1686).
1641. T. Jordan, Walks of Islington, II. ii. (1657), D ij b. If we had known you had been a Trapan, you should ne’r have been admitted into our company.
1653. (title) The Total Rout, or a Brief Discovery Of a Pack of knaves and Drabs, intituled Pimps, Panders, Hectors, Trapans, Nappers, Mobs, and Spanners.
1686. J. Dunton, Lett. fr. New-Eng. (1867), 35. In colour he [alligator] is of a dark brown, which makes him the more imperceptable when he lies as a Trapan in the Waters.
a. 1734. North, Exam., I. ii. (1740), 119. He was a Rogue, and a manifest Trapan of the Earl’s.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvii. IV. 32. Old associates who had once thought him a man of … spotless honour,… hinted their suspicions that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan.
2. [f. TREPAN v.2] The action of entrapping; a stratagem, trick; a trap or snare.
1665. Surv. Aff. Netherl., 132. So the Muscovite likely, upon a Trepan upon him, to be none of their mildest Foes, hath Engrossed the Comerce of the Caspian Sea.
c. 1668. Roxb. Ball. (1891), VII. 360. Beware of Trappans: Maids, look to your Hits.
1671. South, Serm., Worldly Wisdom (1715), 341. There being a Snare, and a Trapan almost in every Word we hear.
1684. Earl Roscom., Ess. Transl. Verse, 16. But what a thoughtless Animal is Man, (How very Active in his own Trepan!)
1823. Scott, Peveril, xlii. Aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions.
