Obs. or arch. Also 7 trappan, trepene. [f. TREPAN, TRAPAN sb.2, q.v.] trans. To catch in a trap; to entrap, ensnare, beguile.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., To Trepan, or rather trappan (from the Ital. Trappare or trappolare, i. to entrap, ensnare, or catch in a gin) in the modern acception of the word, it signifies to cheat or entrap [etc.].
1658. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 431. I see that I am trepan’d by these two fellows.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. III. 617. Some by the Nose with fumes trappan ’em, As Dunstan did the Devil’s Grandamm [= Grannam].
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman (1841), II. xxxvi. 87. To lie upon the catch to trepan his neighbour.
1827. Scott, Surg. Dau., vi. That he should have trepanned the friend who had reposed his whole confidence in him.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, 38. Fellows who would … trepan a lass from the Cumberland shore, or slit the throat of a Dumfries burgher.
b. To lure, inveigle (into or to a place, course of action, etc., to do something, etc.).
a. 1651. Fuller, Worthies (1662), II. 2. Some Setters trapanned him … to hear Masse.
1678. Dryden, Limberham, I. i. Hast thou trepan’d me into a Tabernacle of the Godly?
1700. S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind. 227. These Men trapan that sort of People to go a Voyage that commonly proves their Destruction.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 18. To make use of him to trepan a man to his ruin.
1829. Scott, Rob Roy, Introd. James Mohr Drummond was secretly applied to to trepan Stewart to the sea-coast, and bring him over to Britain.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., III. III. vii. § 7. 353. Pallavicino having been trepanned into the power of the Pope, lost his head at Avignon.
c. To do (any one) out of (a thing) by craft or guile; to cheat or beguile out of; to swindle.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 163. Ten of those Rogues had trapann’d him out of 500. Crowns.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 12. The Spanish Captain … greatly enraged … at being … trepanned out of his ship.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. xxxvi. 629. Trepanned out of their interests by that ridiculous juggling.
Hence Trepanned ppl. a.; Trepanning vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; whence Trepanningly adv., by cheating or strategy (Bailey, 1731).
1670. Walton, Lives, Hooker, 222. A slander which this Age calls Trepanning.
1682. in Lond. Gaz., No. 1714/5. That … Insinuating and Trapaning Association.
1701. Grew, Cosm. Sacra, 189. Some may think of Jael, that … she was no better than a Trapanning Hussy.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. II. v. (1852), 384. Pursevants employed for the trepanning and entrapping of them.
1824. Galt, Rothelan, I. II. xii. 259. The fate of the trapanned page.
1826. W. E. Andrews, Exam. Fox’s Cal. Protestant Saints, 94. Trepanning questions about the power of the pope and the queen in spirituals were put to him.
