| 释义 |
▪ I. mousetrap, n.|ˈmaʊstræp|
Pl. mousetraps, also 7 mice-traps.
[f. mouse n. + trap.]
1. a. A trap for catching mice. (Cf. the older mousefall and mouse-stock.)
In England usually a small cage inside which the bait (a piece of toasted cheese) is so suspended that when the mouse seizes it a spring is released which closes the door. In Scotland a wholly different contrivance is used, which is baited with meal, and is constructed to catch and kill two or three mice without being re-set. (N.E.D.)
c1475Cath. Angl. 245/1 (MS. Addit.) A Mowse trape, muscipula. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 127 b, And he sayth that in contrary wyse, they be as mouse trappes to them that be vnwyse. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 510 There are many kinds of mice-traps where mice do perish by the waight thereof. 1623Middleton More Dissemblers iv. i. 220 Like a mouse-trap baited with bacon. 1772Wesley Jrnl. 14 Jan., He could invent the best mouse-trap. 1842Loudon Encycl. Gardening §1478 The garden mouse⁓trap is generally composed of a slate and a brick, supported by..three slips of wood.
b. fig. A device for enticing a person to his destruction or defeat.
1577F. de L'isle's Legendarie F vij, They..called the kings letters patents the mousetrappes to catch fooles. 1613Hayward Norm. Kings 12 Others demanded if he had any more mouse-traps to lead them into. 1674Essex Papers (Camden) 256 A moustrap laid by Orrery & that gang. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, The Parson's Mouse-trap, Marriage. 1887H. R. Haweis Lt. of Ages v. 139 He [the Greek] did not look upon the senses as so many mouse-traps. 1945R. Hargreaves Enemy at Gate 84 Wounded at the ‘mouse-trap’ of Dettingen, he was present at Fontenoy. 1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France viii. 203 All the agents taken in the Villa des Bois mousetrap at Marseilles..were in the noisome Béleyme prison at Périgueux.
appositive.1678Butler Hud. iii. iii. 751 Ply her with love-letters and billets, And bait 'em well,..And if she miss the mouse-trap lines, They'll serve for other by-designs.
c. transf. Applied humorously to a tiny house.
1839Tennyson in Ld. Tennyson Mem. (1897) I. 171 The house at Tunbridge is too small, a mere mouse-trap. 1885Harper's Mag. Mar. 545/2 They have hunted up a..house..—the most dingy..little mouse-trap you ever saw.
d. In various transf. and fig. uses.
1903Dialect Notes II. 342 Mouse-trap, an implement ‘for cutting and fishing out rope when matted in the well. It will also take out small pieces of iron or steel, or any small object’. 1929Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 309 Mouse-trap, a plant at Willoughby, near Cleveland, built for the manufacture of Lewisite. It was so called by the workmen because every one who entered it did so under an agreement not to leave until the end of the war. 1941Reader's Digest Feb. 54 The boys of Britain's R.A.F. have developed a language all their own...‘roller skates’ are tanks, and ‘mousetraps’ submarines. 1953Rowland & Boyd U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance in World War II 137 The NDRC project thus became an attempt to combine the respective virtues of the Hedgehog and rockets. By the spring of 1942 the solution was at hand in the Mousetrap, an antisubmarine projector that launched a salvo of sixteen 7{pp} .2 rockets ahead of the attacking ship. 1957Amer. Speech XXXII. 194 Mouse trap, any device of an unorthodox nature attached to a handgun for the purpose of making it more accurate or, less frequently, of making it function more smoothly.
2. The cheese with which a mousetrap is baited. Now used joc. to denote inferior or unpalatable cheese. Also mousetrap cheese.
1650B. Discolliminium 17 Their Braines are made of grated Mouse-traps, steep'd in the spirits of Projects. 1936R. Lehmann Weather in Streets iii. iii. 299 A portion of mousetrap cheese, extra charge threepence. 1947F. Smythe Again Switzerland iii. 53 The tasty local cheese—what a change from the eternal ‘mousetrap’! 1958Times Rev. Industry Sept. 104/3 Statistics are silent as to whether the cheese is ‘mousetrap’..a processed type or..has a character of its own. 1960News Chron. 18 Feb. 3/6, I don't even know what kind of cheese they will be serving. But..mousetrap would be the most suitable. 1972Times 2 Sept. 15/7 Salty butter, red ‘mousetrap’ cheese. 1975Observer (Colour Suppl.) 27 Apr. 10/1 Although sometimes dismissed as ‘mousetrap’, Cheddar is much the most popular cheese in Britian.
3. attrib. and Comb., as mousetrap-gun, mousetrap-maker, mousetrap-man, mousetrap mechanism; mousetrap cheese (see sense 2); mousetrap-switch Electr., an automatic switch moved by a spring which is released when the current through a controlling magnet falls below a certain limit.
1964H. L. Peterson Encycl. Firearms 325/1 Some collectors called Cochran rifles ‘*mousetrap guns’.
a1695Wood in Hearne Liber Niger Scaccarii (1728) II. 594 Mr. Selden said, they had as good inquire, whether they had best admitt Inigo Jones, the Kings Architect, to the Company of *Mous-trapmakers, &c. 1894Daily News 30 Nov. 5/5 Among the curious occupations taken up by boys is that of bird dealer, crossing sweeper,..mousetrap maker [etc.].
1631B. Jonson Barth. Fair Dram. Pers., Costard-monger. *Movsetrap-man. Clothier [etc.]. 1708Swift Hist. Vanbrug's Ho. 48 We might expect to see next year, A Mouse-trap Man, Chief Engineer.
1969Guardian 25 July 4/4 Watson gave him a smoke grenade which had a ‘*mousetrap’ mechanism.
Hence mouse-trapped ppl. a., caught like a mouse in a trap.
1607Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe v. iv, You shall heare the poore mouse-trapt-guilty-gentlemen call for mercy.
▪ II. mousetrap, v.|ˈmaʊstræp|
[f. the n.]
trans. To entrap, deceive, fool (a person, etc.).
1890Cent. Dict., Mouse-trap, to catch, as a mouse, in a trap; entrap. 1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 346/1 Mousetrap, v.t. 1. In sports, to feint an opponent out of position. 2. To fool or mislead by false promises; to entice; to cajole. 1961Guardian 13 Feb. 16/7 The whole system..is close to insane. It is this system which has mouse-trapped Secretary McNamara. 1964Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 24 July (1970) 183 Bryson Rash used the expression that Lyndon had ‘mouse-trapped’ Goldwater by leaving him nothing to say about his appointment. |