attrap

English

Etymology 1

French attraper (“to catch”)

Verb

attrap (third-person singular simple present attraps, present participle attrapping, simple past and past participle attrapped)

1. (transitive) To entrap; to ensnare.
   • 1569, Richard Grafton, “Henrye the Fift”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume II, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye, →OCLC, page 464:

     The king before he would take his voyage, sent the Erle of Huntyngdon to ſerche and ſcowre the Seas, leaſt any Frenchmen lyeng in wayte for him might attrap him sodeinly, or he had any knowledge of their ſetting forward.

Etymology 2

ad- +‎ trap

Verb

attrap (third-person singular simple present attraps, present participle attrapping, simple past and past participle attrapped)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To adorn with trappings; to dress or array.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     and all his Steed With oaken Leaves attrap'd

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “attrap”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)