View synonyms for mousetrap

mousetrap

[ mous-trap ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a trap for mice, especially one consisting of a rectangular wooden base on which a metal spring is mounted.
a device, machine, or the like whose structure or function suggests a trap for mice.
a device, system, or stratagem for detecting and catching someone in an unauthorized or illegal act.
Football. trap ¹( def 12 ).

, mouse·trapped, mouse·trap·ping.

Informal.
1. to trap or snare:
  traffic cops mousetrapping drunken drivers.
2. to manipulate by devious or clever means; trick or outwit:
  to mousetrap the witness into a contradiction.
Football. trap ¹( def 24 ).

mousetrap

/ ˈmaʊsˌtræp /

any trap for catching mice, esp one with a spring-loaded metal bar that is released by the taking of the bait
informal.
cheese of indifferent quality

First recorded in 1400–50, mousetrap is from late Middle English mous trappe. See mouse, trap ¹

It was a “mousetrap,” he said, for the women who were already getting blowouts daily because of the speed and environment.

ACME has a mousetrap division that is not performing very well.

“And yet here I die in a mousetrap—with no more noise about it than my own squeaking,” answered he.

The players enter and plan with Hamlet the performance of The Mousetrap.

It's probably not much more than a better mousetrap, but you want to believe it is, don't you?

It is another to say (in the face of ocular experience) that the mousetrap runs after the mouse.

"And yet here I die in a mousetrap—with no more noise about it than my own squeaking," answered he.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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