Trap: Encyclopedia - Trap

Trap

A trap is a device or tactic intended to harm, capture, detect, or inconvenience an intruder. Traps may be physical objects, such as cages or snares, or metaphorical concepts.

Trap - Physical traps

Examples of physical, usually mechanical, traps include:

• Animal trap, often used to obtain the fur or meat of wild animals.
• Booby trap, a mechanism designed to capture or harm unsuspecting humans.
• Heligoland trap, a large funnel-shaped structure used to trap birds.
• Insect trap, used to capture insects.
• Trapdoor, a recessed (often hidden) door in a floor or ceiling.

Trap - Metaphorical traps

Examples of metaphorical or conceptual traps include:

• Canary trap, a method for exposing an information leak.
• High level equilibrium trap, a concept used to explain why China never underwent an indigenous Industrial Revolution.
• Honey trap, a form of sting operation in law enforcement.
• Liquidity trap, a concept in economics involving a stagnant economy and low interest rates.
• Speed trap, a tactic designed to catch speed limit violators; it may also refer to a place where such a tactic is commonly used.
• Verbal trap, a statement or question phrased in such a way that any valid response would imply something the responder does not intend. See also Trick question.
• Welfare trap, a phenomenon by which social policies interact to keep people dependent on welfare; related concepts include the unemployment trap and poverty trap.

Trap - Other meanings

Other meanings of the word trap include:

• In bodybuilding, a nickname for the trapezius muscle.
• In computing, programming code designed to capture errors and reveal where they are. More specifically, a processor-generated exception, usually resulting in a switch into kernel mode.
• In electronics, a filter used to block a range of frequencies.
• In geology, a rock formation in which water, salt or hydrocarbons may collect.
• In horseriding, a device which attaches a carriage to a pony.
• In role-playing games, a type of obstacle often used in dungeons.
• In the narcotics industry, an area where drugs are bought and sold in an open-air street market. People who are big time drug dealers in a trap are known as "Trap Stars".
• In plumbing, a U-shaped pipe located below a drain; also called a water seal.
• In shooting sports, an activity similar to skeet shooting which involves shooting clay pigeons; also, the device which launches the clays.

Trap - Related terms

• Bot trap, a method of handling misbehaving network bots.
• Fur trapper, one who traps animals for a living.
• Neutral zone trap, a defensive strategy in ice hockey.
• Night Trap, a 1992 video game.
• The Parent Trap, the title of two Disney movies.
• Penning trap, used to store charged particles.
• Polar Trappers, 1938 Disney cartoon.
• Trapball, an old game played with a trap.
• TRAP law, a type of legislation used to restrict abortion providers.
• Trap-Neuter-Return, a method of animal control.
• Trap street, a fictitious or incorrectly rendered street on a map.
• Treasure Trap, a live action role-playing game.
• Trivia Trap, a short-lived TV game show.
• Venus Flytrap, a carnivorous plant.

Trap - Place names

• Deccan Traps, in west-central India
• Wolf Trap, Virginia
• Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, also in Virginia

See also

• Ambush (often called a trap, as in the exclamation, "It's a trap!")
• Trapping

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Trap", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki