mousetrap

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

mouse +‎ trap

Pronunciation

• enPR: mous'trăp, IPA: /ˈmaʊsˌtɹæp/, X-SAMPA: /"maUs%tr\{p/

Noun

mousetrap (plural mousetraps)

1. Device for capturing or killing mice and other rodents.
2. (computing) A website designed to open another copy of itself when the user tries to close the webpage. Frequently used by advertisers and pornographers.
3. (business studies) With attribute "better", a hypothetical new or improved product used in economic projections.

   But what happens if they build a better mousetrap?

4. (chiefly UK) Ordinary, everyday cheese
5. (New Zealand) A slice of bread or toast topped with cheese and then grilled or microwaved.

Translations

device for killing mice

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 捕鼠器 (cmn) (bǔshǔqì)

• Czech: past na myši (cs) f, pastička (cs) f
• Finnish: hiirenloukku (fi), rotanloukku (fi)
• French: piège à souris (fr) m, souricière (fr) f
• German: Mausefalle (de) f
• Greek: ποντικοπαγίδα (el) (pontikopagída) f, (colloquial) φάκα (el) (fáka) f
• Hungarian: egérfogó (hu)
• Japanese: ネズミ捕り (ja) (ねずみとり, nezumi-tori), 鼠取り (ja) (ねずみとり, nezumi-tori)

• Korean: 쥐덫 (ko) (jwideot)
• Lithuanian: pelėkautai (lt) m pl
• Russian: мышеловка (ru) (myšelóvka) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мишоловка (sh) f

  Roman: mišolovka (sh) f

• Vietnamese: bẫy chuột (vi)

computing: website designed to open another copy of itself

hypothetical product

• Finnish: hilavitkutin (fi), parempi hiirenloukku (fi)

everyday cheese

Verb

mousetrap (third-person singular simple present mousetraps, present participle mousetrapping, simple past and past participle mousetrapped)

1. (figuratively) To trap; to trick or fool (someone) into a bad situation.
   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford 2004, p. 724:

     He hoped to bring the rebels out of their trenches for a showdown battle somewhere south of the Wilderness, that gloomy expanse of scrub oaks and pines where Lee had mousetrapped Joe Hooker exactly a year earlier.

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