Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TRAP, n.¹ [Sax. trapp, trepp; Fr. trape; It. trapola; Sp. trampa.]

1. An engine that shuts suddenly or with a spring, used for taking game; as, a trap for foxes. A trap is a very different thing from a snare; though the latter word may be used in a figurative sense for a trap.
2. An engine for catching men. [Not used in the United States.]
3. An ambush; a stratagem; any device by which men or other animals may be caught unawares. Let their table be made a snare and a trap. Rom. xi.
4. A play in which a ball is driven with a stick.