Pronunciations
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/tɹəˈpæn/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
Noun
An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick.
- Examples
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More examples (4)
As for all other Pretences, they are nothing but Death and Damnation, dreſſed up in Fair VVords and Falſe Shevvs; nothing but Ginns, and Snares, and Trepans for Souls; Contrived by the Devil, and Managed by ſuch as the Devil ſets on VVork.
[A] Man ſhould fix and fore-arm his Mind vvith this ſettled Perſvvaſion, that, during that Commotion of his Blood and Spirits, in vvhich Paſſion properly conſiſts, vvhatſoever is offered to the Imagination in favour of it, tends only to deceive his Reaſon. It is indeed a real Trapan upon it; feeding it vvith Colours, and Appearances, inſtead of Arguments; […]
But novv has this little Embryo Strength enough to thruſt itſelf into the VVorld? To hold up its Head, and to maintain its Courſe to a perfect Maturity, againſt all the Aſſaults and Batteries of Intemperance; all the Snares and Trapans that Common Life lays in its VVay to extinguiſh and ſuppreſs it?
Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept this man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, […]
A person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim; a fraudster, a swindler, a trickster.
Usage- Archaic
- Obsolete
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More examples (1)
[O]ld associates who had once thought him [Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston] a man of dauntless courage and spotless honour, […] now pronounced that he was at best a meanspirited coward, and hinted their suspicions that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan.
Verb
To catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; to ensnare, to trap.
Usage- Transitive
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Each of 'em has a ſev'ral Gin, / To catch Intelligences in. / Some by the Noſe vvith fumes trapan 'em, / As Dunſtan did the Devil's Grannum.
More examples (1)
"I cannot think," he said, after a moment's pause, "that the fellow means to trepan us; and in any event, I trust we should have no difficulty in forcing the door, or otherwise making an escape.[…]"
To trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim; to defraud, to ensnare, to entrap, to swindle.
Usage- Figurative
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
[…] [Edmund] Plovvden being of the Romiſh perſvvaſion, ſome Setters trapanned him (pardon the prolepſis) to hear Maſſe: But aftervvards Plovvden underſtanding, that the pretender to Officiate vvas no Prieſt, but a meer Lay-man (on deſigne to make a diſcovering) Oh! The caſe is altered quoth Plovvden: No Priest, no Maſſe.
And haſt thou trepan'd me into a Tabernacle of the Godly? Is this Pious Boarding-houſe a place for me, thou vvicked Varlet?
[H]e hoped he did not intend to make uſe of him to trepan a man to his ruin.
More examples (9)
The Spaniſh Captain, tho' ſurpriz'd vvith the Stratagem that had brought him thus into the Hands of his Enemies, and greatly enrag'd in his Mind at being circumvented, and trapann'd out of his Ship, yet ſhevv'd a great Preſence of Mind under his Misfortune; […]
[H]e ſcorns to make Miſtake paſs for Payment, or to lie upon the Catch to trapan his Neighbour; in a vvord, that he is a fair, dovvnright, honeſt Man, God has bleſt him, and every Body gives him a good VVord.
O fie! Sir Peter,—vvhat, join in a plot to trepan my brother!
[H]is [John Narborough's] principal misfortune being the loſing company of a ſmall bark vvhich attended him, and having ſome of his people trapanned at Baldivia.
Among his men I recollected one Cordus, a gentleman's ſon from Hamburgh, in which character I had knovvn him, and vvho had been trepanned into the VVeſt India Company's ſervice by the crimps or ſilver-coopers as a common ſoldier.
No, Sir, I vvill not be alone vvith you; you have infamouſly trepanned me from my friends, and I inſiſt upon being carried back to my mother, or rather left here, for vvith you I vvill not travel.
But that he should have trepanned the friend who had reposed his whole confidence in him—that he should have plundered him of his fortune, and placed him in this house of pestilence, with the hope that death might stifle his tongue, were iniquities not to have been anticipated, even if the worst of these reports were true.
But [Ferrante] Pallavicino, having been trepanned into the power of the pope, lost his head at Avignon.
"In the plain meaning of the word, sir," said I. "I was on my way to your house, when I was trepanned on board the brig, cruelly struck down, thrown below, and knew no more of anything till we were far at sea. I was destined for the plantations; a fate that, in God's providence, I have escaped."