Word.ws English Dictionary

gumption trap

gumption trap noun: an event or mindset that can cause a person to lose enthusiasm and become discouraged from starting or continuing a project.

Noun

gumption trap (plural gumption traps)

  1. (informal) An event or mindset that can cause a person to lose enthusiasm and become discouraged from starting or continuing a project.
    • There are hundreds of different kinds of gumption traps, maybe thousands, maybe millions. I have no way of knowing how many I don't know. I know it seems as though I've stumbled into every kind of gumption trap imaginable.1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN, part III, page 304

Forms of gumption trap

pluralgumption traps

Origin of gumption trap

Coined by Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974).

Questions about gumption trap

What does gumption trap mean?
Gumption trap means an event or mindset that can cause a person to lose enthusiasm and become discouraged from starting or continuing a project.
What part of speech is gumption trap?
Gumption trap is a noun.
What is the plural of gumption trap?
The plural of gumption trap is gumption traps.

Words near gumption trap in the dictionary

  1. gumphions
  2. gumphs
  3. gumps
  4. gumpth
  5. gumption
  6. gumption trap
  7. gumption traps
  8. gumptionless
  9. gumptions
  10. gumptious
  11. gums

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gumption trap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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