subs. (old).—1. Sagacity, craft, contrivance, penetration. Hence TO UNDERSTAND TRAP = to be knowing, WIDE-AWAKE (q.v.), alive to one’s own interest (GROSE); TO SMELL TRAP = to suspect: spec. of thieves in ‘spotting’ a ’tec. ‘That TRAP is down’ = The trick (or try-on) has failed, It’s no go.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works (1705). Crying out, Split my Wind Pipe, Sir, you are a Fool, and DON’T UNDERSTAND TRAP, the whole world’s a Cheat.
1740. R. NORTH, Examen, 203. It is almost impossible that all these circumstances … should be collected without some contrivance for purposes that do not obviously appear; and nothing but TRAP can resolve them. Ibid., 549. Some cunning persons that had found out his foible and ignorance of TRAP, first put him in great fright.
1748. A. BOYER, Dictionnaire. You DO NOT UNDERSTAND TRAP. Vous n’y entendez pas finesse.
1760. FOOTE, The Minor, ii. Our Minor was a little too hasty; he DID NOT UNDERSTAND TRAP, knows nothing of the game, my dear.
1821. SCOTT, The Pirate, i. 51. His good lady … UNDERSTOOD TRAP as well as any woman in the Mearns.
1869. GREENWOOD, The Seven Curses of London, II. vi. They can discover the detective … by his step, or by his clumsy affectation of unofficial loutishness. They recognize the stiff neck in the loose neckerchief. They smell ‘TRAP,’ and are superior to it.
1881. J. P. ROBSON, ed. Songs of the Bards of the Tyne, 275.
| Says, aw, ‘Smash! thou is UP TO TRAP!’ | |
| For he lets the folks byeth in and out. |
2. (old).—A sheriff’s officer, thief-taker, policeman, or detective (GROSE).
1705. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. iv. 8. TRAPS Divers, Punks, and Yeomen.
1800. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, 116. There’s no hornies, TRAPS, scouts, nor beak-runners amongst them.
1819. J. H. VAUX, Glossary, s.v. TRAPS, police officers, or runners, are properly so called; but it is common to include constables of any description under this title.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. Item … I gave the item that the TRAPS were a coming.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford (1854), 80. Where a ruffler might lie, without fear that the TRAPS should distress him.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xiii. The TRAPS have got him, and that’s all about it.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard (1889), 12. ‘Where are the lurchers?’ ‘Who?’ asked Wood. ‘The TRAPS!’ responded a bystander.
1841. G. W. REYNOLDS, Pickwick Abroad, xxvi., ‘The House Breaker’s Song.’
| But should the TRAPS be on the sly, | |
| For a change we’ll have a crack. |
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, vi. Dick’s always in trouble;… there’s a couple of TRAPS in Belston after him now.
1867. Victorian Song Book, ‘Where’s your License?’ 6.
| The little word Joe! | |
| Which all of you know, | |
| Is the signal the TRAPS are quite near. |
1885. J. B. GRIBBLE, A Day with Australian Bushrangers, in The Leisure Hour, xxxiv. March, 192/1. In the meantime, however, the Kellys had got to hear that the ‘TRAPS’ were in search of them.
1890. BOLDREWOOD, The Squatter’s Dream, 157. We’ll be a match for all the blessed TRAPS between here and Sydney with these here tools.
1895. H. B. MARRIOTT-WATSON, The King’s Treasure, in The New Review, July, 2. He … was very useful … both to us on the lay and to the TRAPS.
3. (common).—A carriage; ‘a fast name for a conveyance of any kind’ (HOTTEN). [SALA: ‘The old-fashioned gig had, under the seat, a sort of boot extending a few inches beyond the back of the seat. At the beginning of the century gigs were raised upon higher wheels than at present. On this raised vehicle the boot was lengthened behind, holding a brace of dogs for sporting purposes. In these “dog-carts” (thus named afterwards) the dogs were at first placed in the boot at the front, and I dare say that the “noble sportsmen” may occasionally have had their heels or their calves bitten by dogs with short tempers, and with scant liking for the confinement of the boot. This led to a great improvement, in the shape of an open latticed box, which was attached to the back of the body of the conveyance, and provided with a trap-door behind for the admission of the dogs. In process of time the latticed box was found very convenient for the carriage of other things besides dogs, and as everything conveyed in the cart (chattels, not people) had to be put in through the trap-door (soon curtailed into TRAP: compare “bus” for omnibus, “cab” for cabriolet), the conveyance itself was eventually termed TRAP.’] Hence TRAPPER = a horse used in a TRAP: cf. VANNER, BUSSER, CABBER, etc., on the model of ‘hunter.’
1854–5. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, lvii. Florac’s pleasure was to drive his Princess with four horses into Newcome. He called his carriage his TRAPPE, his ‘drague.’
1872. INGELOW, Off the Skelligs, xx. ‘I think you must make room for me inside the TRAP.’ It is remarkable how much men despise close carriages, and what disrespectful epithets they invent for them.
1887. St. James’s Gazette, 2 Feb. The object of the Spring Show is to encourage generally the breeding of sound and shapely half-bred horses, ponies, nags, TRAPPERS, hacks, chargers, harness-horses, and hunters.
4. (colloquial).—Belongings; THINGS (q.v.); STICKS AND STONES (q.v.): usually in a measure of contempt, cf. RATTLE-TRAP.
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xvii. A part of her crew … promised to conceal him and his TRAPS until the Pilgrim should sail.
1840. THACKERAY, The Comic Almanack, 237, ‘Cox’s Diary.’ Carry you, and your kids, and your TRAPS, etc. Ibid. (1854–5), The Newcomes, xxx. A couple of horses carry us and our TRAPS.
1853. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Wise Saws, etc. We call clothes and other fixins ‘TRAPS’ here, and sometimes ‘duds’ for shortness.
1857. C. KINGSLEY, Two Years Ago, xiv. On the first hint of disease, pack up your TRAPS and your good lady, and go and live in the watch-house across the river.
1871. H. B. STOWE, Oldtown Fireside Stories, 147. The other was a sort o’ storeroom, where the old cap’n kep’ all sorts o’ TRAPS.
1877. E. E. HALE, G.T.T.; or, The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman, xii. A cheerful black boy followed with their other ‘TRAPS,’ and so they crossed to the platform of the imperial through train.
1887. Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept. As soon as the affair was over, the TRAPS were packed up as quickly as possible and the party drove away.
1900. HUME NISBET, In Sheep’s Clothing, III. vii. He left his TRAPS at the wharf when he landed.
5. (Australian).—SWAG (q.v.).
6. (venery).—The female pudendum: also CARNAL TRAP: see MONOSYLLABLE and TRAPSTICK.
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, II. xxi. Here within … showing his long codpiece, is Master John Thursday who … doth so well know how to find out all the corners … in your CARNAL TRAP.
