Citations:trap

English citations of trap

Nouns

probably "trapdoor" (could be "stairs")

• 2013, Richard Cowper, Shades of Darkness, Gateway (→ISBN):

  […] and sure enough, set into the ceiling just above the door lintel I discovered a trap leading up into the loft.

• 2015, Sax Rohmer, Fu-Manchu: The Shadow of Fu-Manchu, Titan Books (US, CA) (→ISBN):

  Stein had wheeled in trays of refreshments some time earlier, but had been called away by Mrs. Frobisher in order to bolt a trap leading to a loft over the house.

could be "ladder, stairs" or "trapdoor"

• 1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, volume 13, page 383:

  This is effected by wooden traps or stairs, placed from one room to another.

• 1864, Robert Niccol, Essay on Sugar, and General Treatise on Sugar Refining:

  The liquor is discharged from the cock S into liquor cans V […] , from which it is transferred to the sugar in the moulds. W represents one of the traps or stairs which communicate with respective floors of the sugarhouse.

• 1875, Francis Wey, Rome, page 92:

  In these quarries are frequently cut narrow stairs or traps to descend mysteriously into real catacombs, the approaches to which were generally concealed by the sand-quarries when they had ceased to be worked.

could be "stairs" or "snare"

• 1870, Francis Montagu Smith, A Handbook of the Manufacture and Proof of Gunpowder, page 22:

  This chamber is provided with a tall chimney, also of wood, containing a series of steps or traps to catch as much of the “flowers” as possible.

• 1879, Ernest Spon, Supplement to Spons' Dictionary of Engineering, page 360:

  At intervals of 10 to 30 ft. steps or traps, about 3 or 4 in. high, are placed across the bottom of the trough, to intercept the pyrites […]

"stairs" or the rock sense

• 1858, William Carew Hazlitt, British Columbia and Vancouver Island, London : G. Routledge, page 154:

  About four and a half miles up, a dyke of greenstone runs across our course, over the irregular traps or steps in which the river precipitates itself in a series of foaming cataracts; this irruptive mass runs in a north-west south-east direction, and is about two miles in thickness. After passing it, the slaty formation again […]

anatomically male person who passes as a woman

• 2011 May 27, “Re: anons target US chamber”, in ‎^[1] (Usenet):

  And trust me you don't want to see a trap ether. I like my girls without a ding-a-ling.

• 2019, Rachel Anne Williams, Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism, and Politics, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (→ISBN), page 32:

  TRANNIES, TRAPS, AND THE THIRD GENDER. […] There is similar debate happening in online circles about whether the word "trap" is a slur and if it's possible for trans girls to reappropriate this term for themselves. A "trap" is basically a trans girl or crossdresser who "tricks" or "traps" a straight male into getting aroused by them and then suddenly reveals their trans status. "Trap" has now just come to be a colloquial internet term for any trans feminine person, often used in forums populated by men […] It's easy to see why the whole culture surrounding traps is harmful to trans women.

• 2020, jaye simpson, it was never going to be okay, Harbour Publishing (→ISBN)

  man says he isn't a fag when asking

  to masturbate with my body. positions

  himself as conqueror, calls my body

  trick,

  trap,

  tranny.

  man fucks witch

  embarrassed by his own release […]

• (Can we date this quote?), Coulsdon Writers, Back to the Writing (→ISBN), page 37:

  “My son is a tranny.” “No, mother dear, I'm a Trap. There is a difference. You should have knocked before you came in.” 'Trap'? For all she knew about terms for cross-dressers he could have said he was a splurge monkey or yiff jumper and it would have meant the same. […] "Now I'm Poppy. I'm a boy who's androgynous enough to be confused as a girl[.]"

• (Can we date this quote?), Klei Nightwriter, The Book of Voltaire: The Complete Bundle (Season 1) 3rd Edition REVISED, Klei Nightwriter

  I love femboys better than trannies, traps are better than futa anyway. We conversed and we started to get close. I chose her. So, she told me to sit down so she can cut my hair. "I want to dye my hair; how much is that?

Verbs

to open and shut a trap-door (with associated trap-stairs)

• 1842, The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines, pages 41-42 and page 45:

  John Saville, seven years old […] : "I stand and open and shut the door; [...] I fell asleep one day, and a corve ran over my leg and made it smart; they'd squeeze me against the door if I fall to sleep again." […]

  Sarah Gooder, aged eight years: "I'm a trapper in the Gauber Pit. I have to trap without a light, and I'm scared." […]

  William Martin, not ten years old […] ": "I trap two doors. I never see the daylight, except on Sundays." […]

  Elizabeth Day, aged seventeen […] "I have been nearly nine years in the pit. I trapped for two years when I first went, and have hurried ever since. I have hurried for my father until a year ago. I have to help to riddle and fill, […]

• 1910, Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, page 551-552:

  January 15, 1907. August Smith, trapper, aged 71 years, married, employed at mine No. 10 of the Consolidated Coal Company, Mount Olive, Macoupin County, was run over by a trip of cars and killed. He was employed to trap a door at the foot of a steep hill. The driver had to get his trip from different entries and make it up on top of this hill. Two of the cars started down the hill toward the door. The trapper supposing that it was the driver coming with his trip, opened the door […]

• 1918, United Mine Workers of America, Proceedings of the ... Convention of the United Mine Workers of America ..., page 301:

  […] but it is a great deal better than the $2.70 they received when I took it up; $2.65 a day for a trapper boy on an eight-hour basis is a remarkable stride since the day I trapped a door for twelve hours at […]

• 1917, Coal Mining Catalogs, page 324:

  In one year Pennsylvania alone has reported as many as 48 fatal accidents with hand trapped doors.

• 1922, The Coal Industry:

  Cost one-tenth as much to operate as hand trapped doors.