entrap

From Middle French entrapper, entraper, from Old French entraper (“catch in a trap”), equivalent to en- +‎ trap. Compare Middle English bitrappen, from Old English betræppan (“to catch in a trap, entrap”), from the same West Germanic source (see Modern English betrap).

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɹæp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æp

entrap (third-person singular simple present entraps, present participle entrapping, simple past and past participle entrapped)

1. (transitive) To catch in a trap or snare.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     Then noble ſouldiers to intrap these theeues […]
     We haue our Cammels laden al with gold:
     Which you that be but common ſouldiers,
     Shall fling in euery corner of the field:
     And while the baſe borne Tartars take it vp,
     You […] Shall maſſacre those greedie minded ſlaues.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 189:

     He goes home to complain to his father, and the two of them decide on a plan to entrap Enkidu.

2. (transitive) To lure (someone), either into a dangerous situation, or into performing an illegal act.

Entrap is a more intense form of trap: see en-.

• betrap, ensnare

• entrapment

• -pteran, Panter, Parten, arpent, enrapt, panter, parent, trepan