pitfall and gin

English

Alternative forms

• pitfalls and gins

Phrase

pitfall and gin

1. Two types of trap (see pitfall and gin), used figuratively to refer to obstacles or impediments to people, or anything that might trick or ensnare someone.
   • 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page xi. 103:

     "All I know of this old trail [...] is what you can see. I got it from the highroad. I was covering the kite who went in. Where it leads, and if it's beset with "pitfall and gin", I can't say."

   • 1930, History of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) 1858 to 1928, page 352:

     Thanks, however, to the almost uncanny faculty of the Gurkha for avoiding, in the dark, “pitfall and gin" — in this case tent ropes, ravines, and terraces, these last in some places giving a drop of twelve feet or even more'

   • 1949 January 13, The Herald, Melbourne, page 13, column 2:

     NOT in the same "head ache" class as Mr O. Richardson's "New Year's Gift," but still with a few pitfalls and gins for the unwary, this innocent six-card problem has a certain novelty of its own.