claptrap

English

WOTD – 24 November 2009

Alternative forms

• clap trap
• clap-trap

Etymology

Theater slang, c. 1730, from clap +‎ trap, referring to theatrical techniques or gags used to incite applause.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklæpˌtɹæp/

• Audio (AU):

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Noun

claptrap (countable and uncountable, plural claptraps)

1. Empty verbiage or nonsense. [from early 19th c.]

   Synonyms: hot air, palaver, waffle; see also Thesaurus:nonsense

   • 2014 November 6, Rob Nixon, “Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Klein diagnoses impressively what hasn’t worked. No more claptrap about fracked gas as a bridge to renewables. Enough already of the international summit meetings that produce sirocco-quality hot air, and nonbinding agreements that bind us all to more emissions.

2. (historical) A device for producing a clapping sound in theaters.
3. A device or trick to gain applause; a humbug.
   • 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Lady Milborough as Ambassador”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 83:

     There had been a suggestion that the child should be with her [while she answers the door], but the mother herself had rejected this. "It would be stagey," she had said, "and clap-trap. There is nothing I hate so much as that."

Translations

empty verbiage or nonsense

• Catalan: galimaties (ca) m, embull (ca) m, embrolla f, algaravia (ca) f
• Czech: cancy m pl
• Dutch: Bombast, Holle frasen,
• Finnish: hölynpöly (fi), humpuuki (fi), höpönpöpö
• French: verbiage (fr), charabia (fr), galimatias (fr)
• German: Gerede (de) n, Geschwätz (de) n, Gequatsche (de) n
• Italian: sproloquio (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: kohe, ngutungutuahi, kutukutuahi
• Polish: mowa-trawa, pustosłowie
• Russian: чепуха́ (ru) f (čepuxá)
• Serbo-Croatian: (spoken nonsense) bljezgarije (sh) f pl, glupost (sh) f
• Spanish: algarabía (es), verborrea (es), galimatías (es), palabrería (es)
• Turkish: palavra (tr)