ensnare

Verb

ensnare (third-person singular simple present ensnares, present participle ensnaring, simple past and past participle ensnared)

1. To entrap; to catch in a snare or trap.
   • Let theſe / Inſnare the vvretched in the toils of lavv, / Fomenting diſcord, and perplexing right, / An iron race!a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 160, lines 1289–1292
   • The Geese and the Cranes fed in the same meadow. A birdcatcher came to ensnare them in his nets.1887, Æsop, translated by George Fyler Townsend, Three Hundred Æsop's Fables
2. (figuratively) To entangle; to enmesh.
   • But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion
   • The gamble proved devastating for millions of people, beyond public figures ensnared in the leak and subsequent media frenzy, including the reality TV star Josh Duggar, the Real Housewives Of New York star Kristen Taekman’s husband and, in an earlier scandal, the politician Eliot Spitzer.2021 March 7, David Hytner, “Manchester United catch City cold as Fernandes and Shaw end winning run”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   ensnarl, ravel, snarl, enmesh, entangle, foul, implicate, imply, involve, mat