Trap

Contents

1 Physical traps
2 Metaphorical traps
3 Other meanings
4 Related terms
5 Place names
6 See also

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A trap is a device or tactic intended to harm, capture, detect, or inconvenience an intruder. Traps may be physical objects, such as cages or snares, or metaphorical concepts.

Trap may refer to:

Physical traps

Examples of physical, usually mechanical, traps include:

Animal trap, often used to obtain the fur or meat of wild animals
Booby trap, a mechanism designed to capture or harm unsuspecting humans
Heligoland trap, a large funnel-shaped structure used to trap birds
Insect trap, used to capture insects
Man-traps
Mousetrap, designed to catch mice. See also Mousetrap (disambiguation)
Trapdoor, a recessed (often hidden) door in a floor or ceiling

Metaphorical traps

Examples of metaphorical or conceptual traps include:

Canary trap, a method for exposing an information leak
High level equilibrium trap, a concept used to explain why China never underwent an indigenous Industrial Revolution
Honey trap, a form of sting operation in law enforcement
Liquidity trap, a concept in economics involving a stagnant economy and low interest rates
Speed trap, a tactic designed to catch speed limit violators; it may also refer to a place where such a tactic is commonly used
Verbal trap, a statement or question phrased in such a way that any valid response would imply something the responder does not intend. See also Trick question
Welfare trap, a phenomenon by which social policies interact to keep people dependent on welfare; related concepts include the unemployment trap and poverty trap

Other meanings

Other meanings of the word trap include:

In bodybuilding, a nickname for the trapezius muscle
In biochemistry, TRAP is an abbreviation for tartrate resistant acid phosphatase
In computing, programming code or signal designed to capture errors and reveal where they are. More specifically, a processor-generated exception, usually resulting in a switch into kernel mode
In electronics, a filter used to block a range of frequencies
In geology, a rock formation in which water, salt or hydrocarbons may collect
In horseriding, a device which attaches a carriage to a pony
In role-playing games, a type of obstacle often used in dungeons
In the narcotics industry, an area where drugs are bought and sold in an open-air street market. People who are major drug dealers in a trap are known as "Trap Stars"
In plumbing, a U-shaped pipe located below a drain; also called a water seal
In color printing, where inks of different colours have been overlapped to mask registration problems. The process is called spreading and choking
Also in color printing, when one ink dries too much, which stops the following colors being absorbed into the paper. It leaves a mottled effect.
In shooting sports, the activity of trap shooting, a clay target shooting sport; also, specifically the Olympic Trap event; also, the device which launches the clays
Trap (carriage), a light two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage

Related terms

Bot trap, a method of handling misbehaving network bots
Fur trapper, one who traps animals for a living
Neutral zone trap, a defensive strategy in ice hockey
Night Trap, a 1992 video game
The Parent Trap, the title of two Disney movies
Penning trap, used to store charged particles
Polar Trappers, a 1938 Disney cartoon
Trapball, an old game played with a trap
TRAP law, a type of legislation used to restrict abortion providers
Trap-Neuter-Return, a method of animal control
Trap street, a fictitious or incorrectly rendered street on a map
Treasure Trap, a live action role-playing game
Trivia Trap, a short-lived TV game show
Venus Flytrap, a carnivorous plant
Trap (novel), a Miles Franklin Award winning novel by Peter Mathers

Place names

Deccan Traps, in west-central India
Wolf Trap, Virginia
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, also in Virginia