| 释义 |
claptrap|ˈklæptræp|
[f. clap n.1 4 + trap n.]
1. (with pl.) A trick or device to catch applause; an expression designed to elicit applause.
1727–31Bailey II, A Clap Trap..a trap to catch a clap by way of applause from the spectators at a play. 1788Dibdin Musical Tour lxiii. 161 Sentiments which, by the theatrical people, are known by the name of clap traps. 1799Southey Lett. (1856) I. 67 There will be no clap-traps, nothing about ‘Britannia rule the Waves’. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs xx, Don't..vent claptraps about your own virtue.
2. (without a or pl.) Language designed to catch applause; cheap showy sentiment. In modern use passing into sense ‘nonsense, rubbish’.
1819Byron Juan ii. cxxiv, I hate..that air Of clap-trap, which your recent poets prize. 1845Punch Nov. 215/1 Dan..fancies he covers his own astounding selfishness and indifference by this brutal clap⁓trap. 1880Disraeli Endym. lvii. 253 He disdained all cant and clap-trap. 1895Daily News 30 May 2/3 That is very eloquent but it is what I call vicious and wicked clap trap. 1915A. Huxley Let. Nov. (1969) 86 How much better this book wd. have been had she made it a study of don-life in the 80's..instead of the usual politico-Debrett clap-trap. 1955Times 26 Aug. 7/5 Cannot our educationists turn away from the pretentious claptrap put about during the past 20 years..? 1966Illustr. London News 30 July 28/2 The piece at one point turns to deplorable dramatic claptrap.
†3. A mechanical contrivance for making a clapping noise to express applause, etc. Obs.
1847Craig, Clap-trap..a kind of clapper for making a noise in theatres. 1864Webster, Clap-trap, a contrivance for clapping in theaters. 1866Cincinnati Gaz. in Public Opinion 24 Feb., A street juggler..sings some ditty to the sound of clap-traps which he swings or works in his hand.
4. attrib. (in senses 1, 2), passing into true adjectival use; = claptrappy.
1815Scribbleomania 124 note, The Clap-Trap system which he has uniformly adopted during..his theatrical career. 1842G. S. Faber Provinc. Lett. (1844) II. 187 They triumphantly draw the clap-trap conclusion, that, etc. 1855G. Brimley Ess. Tennyson 74 Claptrap appeals to the war-feeling of the day. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) II. 371 A regular clap-trap speaker. 1887Spectator 7 May 622/1 The subject is more or less clap-trap.
Hence claptrappery, claptrappish a., claptrappy a., -ily adv.; all nonce-wds.
1820Coleridge Lett. I. xi. 118 Her plebicolar Clap-Trapperies. 1880Punch 27 Dec. 306/2 Till ‘Goodwill’ sound verily, Cheerily, not claptrappily. 1809Southey in C. Southey Life III. 205 Did I not tell you it [a passage in Kehama] was clap-trappish? 1865Reader 2 Dec. 636/2 The language being either claptrappish or vapid. 1873Spectator 4 Oct., Mr. Chamberlain's clap-trappy programme of a Free Church, a Free School, Free Labour, and Free Land. |