the.com/trap
a promise that costs more to enter than to escape.
means A device, scheme, or situation designed to catch, ensnare, or deceive someone who steps into it unaware.
from From Old English 'træppe,' a snare for catching animals — related to words for stepping, since a trap is something you tread into. The sense widened from literal animal-catching gear to any clever device or deceptive arrangement that closes around the unwary. The slang for 'mouth' (as in 'shut your trap') is a much later, jokier extension of the same idea: an opening that snaps shut.
- venus flytrap
- Counts to two touches before snapping shut
- music genre
- Named for the houses where drugs were sold
- plumbing
- That U-pipe traps water to block sewer gas
- chess
- A losing move that looks like winning
- lobster
- Most caught lobsters could escape but don't
bear trap — steel leghold device used in north america from 1800s-1970s to catch fur-bearing animals
speed trap — hidden police enforcement on i-95 between baltimore and washington, d.c., catching thousands yearly
trap beat — drum pattern popularized by t.i. in atlanta around 2003, foundational to modern hip-hop