mousetrap

English

Etymology

mouse + trap

Pronunciation

  • enPR: mous'trăp, IPA(key): /ˈmaʊsˌtɹæp/

Noun

mousetrap (plural mousetraps)

  1. Device for capturing or killing mice and other rodents.
  2. (computing) A website designed to open another copy of itself when the user tries to close the webpage. Frequently used by advertisers and pornographers.
  3. (business studies) With attribute "better", a hypothetical new or improved product used in economic projections.
    But what happens if they build a better mousetrap?
  4. (chiefly Britain, uncountable) Ordinary, everyday cheese
  5. (New Zealand) A slice of bread or toast topped with cheese and then grilled or microwaved.

Translations

Verb

mousetrap (third-person singular simple present mousetraps, present participle mousetrapping, simple past and past participle mousetrapped)

  1. (figuratively) To trap; to trick or fool (someone) into a bad situation.
    • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2004, p. 724:
      He hoped to bring the rebels out of their trenches for a showdown battle somewhere south of the Wilderness, that gloomy expanse of scrub oaks and pines where Lee had mousetrapped Joe Hooker exactly a year earlier.

Anagrams

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