trapan
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹəˈpæn/
rhymes: -æn
Forms: form: trapans
form: trapanning
form: trapanned
form: trapanned
form: trepan
Etymology: The origin of the noun is uncertain; sense 2 (“person that traps or tricks another”), the original sense, was probably thieves’ cant and may be derived from trap (noun or verb). Sense 1 (“act of entrapping or tricking; thing which entraps or tricks”) is from the verb.
The verb is derived from sense 2 of the noun.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1663 (indicated as 1664), [Samuel Butler], “Canto III”, in Hudibras. The Second Part. […], London: […] T[homas] R[oycroft] for John Martyn, and James Allestry […], →OCLC, page 175:
text: "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.[…]"
ref: 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 163:
glosses: To catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; to ensnare, to trap.
examples: text: […] [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.
ref: a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Shrop-shire”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 3:
text: And haſt thou trepan'd me into a Tabernacle of the Godly? Is this Pious Boarding-houſe a place for me, thou vvicked Varlet?
ref: 1677 (date written), John Dryden, The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
text: [H]e hoped he did not intend to make uſe of him to trepan a man to his ruin.
ref: a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, “Book III. Of the Rest of King Charles II’s Reign, from the Year 1673 to the Year 1685, in which He Died.”, in [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], editor, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC, page 413:
text: 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; […]
ref: 1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 12:
text: [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.
ref: 1727, [Daniel Defoe], “Of the Honest Tradesman, when by Time and Long Success in Trade, He is Grown Well to Pass, How He Ought to Govern Himself, and How to Guard against Disasters which Naturally Attend a Prosperous Circumstance in Trade”, in The Compleat English Tradesman. […], volume II, London: […] Charles Rivington […], →OCLC, part I, page 88:
text: O fie! Sir Peter,—vvhat, join in a plot to trepan my brother!
ref: 1777 May 8 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The School for Scandal; a Comedy; […], Dublin: [s.n.], published 1780, →OCLC, Act IV, scene [ii], page 58:
text: [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.
ref: 1748, George Anson; Richard Walter, compiler, “Observations and Directions for Facilitating the Passage of Our Future Cruisers Round Cape Horn”, in [Benjamin Robins], editor, A Voyage Round the World, in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. […], London: […] [F]or the author; by John and Paul Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 93:
text: 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.
ref: 1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XVII, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume II, London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], and J. Edwards, […], →OCLC, page 28:
text: 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.
ref: 1798, Charlotte Smith, chapter V, in The Young Philosopher: […], volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, page 108:
text: 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.
ref: 1827, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume II (The Surgeon’s Daughter), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, pages 174–175:
text: But [Ferrante] Pallavicino, having been trepanned into the power of the pope, lost his head at Avignon.
ref: 1837–1839, Henry Hallam, “History of Polite Literature in Prose from 1600 to 1650”, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, volume III, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, section I, paragraph 7, page 629:
text: "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."
ref: 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Come to Mr. Rankeillor”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 280:
glosses: 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.
Derived terms: word: trapanned
word: trapanner
word: trapanning
word: trapanningly