Definition of "flypaper" [fly•pa•per]

• Paper coated with a sticky, sometimes poisonous substance, used to catch flies. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "If our troops in Iraq are just "flypaper" -- sitting-duck targets to attract terrorist bombers -- why not try to get the Palestinian suicide bombers to go after them, too?"
• "Aura watches the pot of flypaper, which is boiling too vigorously, and lowers the flame."
• "The Bush administration hoped that Iraq would draw terrorists to one place, making them easier to kill, the so-called flypaper theory."