traps, n. pl. colloq.
(træps)
[A modern word of colloquial origin; app. shortened from trappings: see trapping vbl. n.1 (Some take it as pl. of trap n.1, as referring to the outfit of a trapper.)]
Portable articles for dress, furniture, or use; personal effects; baggage; belongings.
| 1813 Capt. R. M. Cairnes Let. 4 Apr. in Dickson MSS. (ed. J. H. Leslie, 1910) Ser. iii. 866 The rest [of the carriages] is for the Jolly Captain's Shirts and Stockings, &c., besides a mule for his other traps. 1828 Craven Gloss., Traps, small tools or implements, always used in the plural number; equivalent to the classical arma. 1830 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 153/2 This was the general signal for getting our ‘traps’ on the ice. 1831 John Bull 7 Aug. 254 No one thought..that only three days afterwards he would be obliged to pack up his traps and be off. 1833 Marryat P. Simple xiii, I packed up my traps and went on shore. 1887 J. Ball Nat. in S. Amer. 194 To carry some of the traps with which a botanist is usually encumbered. |