Definition of "trap" []

• A contrivance for catching and holding animals, as a concealed pit or a clamplike device that springs shut suddenly. (noun)
• A stratagem for catching or tricking an unwary person. (noun)
• A confining or undesirable circumstance from which escape or relief is difficult: fell into poverty's trap. (noun)
• A device for sealing a passage against the escape of gases, especially a U-shaped or S-shaped bend in a drainpipe that prevents the return flow of sewer gas by means of a water barrier. (noun)
• Sports A device that hurls clay pigeons into the air in trapshooting. (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.

• "The _house trap_ is a deep seal trap placed inside the foundation wall, and intersects the house drain and house sewer."
• "The term trap refers to a processor's mechanism for capturing an executing thread when an exception or interrupt occurs and transferring control to a fixed location in the operating system."
• "First out of the trap is a fellow Kansai blogger, sleepytako, a name that already suggests slow times!"