Word.ws English Dictionary

honey trap

honey trap noun: the use of a romantic or a sexual relationship to entice a person into revealing secret information.

Noun

honey trap (plural honey traps)

  1. (idiomatic) The use of a romantic or a sexual relationship to entice a person into revealing secret information.
    • “Some girl had made a fool of him,” said Connie with great contempt. “The Dutch set him a honey trap, my dear, and he barged in with his eyes wide shut.”1974, John le Carré, chapter 12, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, →ISBN

Verb

honey trap (third-person singular simple present honey traps, present participle honey trapping, simple past and past participle honey trapped)

  1. (transitive) To entice a person into a compromising situation (such as revealing secret information) by means of a romantic or sexual relationship.

honey trap meaning in Arabic

honey trap in Arabic

use of a romantic or a sexual relationship
فَخّ الْعَسَل faḵḵ al-ʕasal

Forms of honey trap

Noun
pluralhoney traps
alternative formhoneytrap
alternative formhoney-trap
Verb
third-person singular presenthoney traps
present participlehoney trapping
past participlehoney trapped
pasthoney trapped

Origin of honey trap

Popularized by John le Carré in the novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974).

Words formed from honey trap

Questions about honey trap

What does honey trap mean?
Honey trap means the use of a romantic or a sexual relationship to entice a person into revealing secret information.
What is honey trap in Arabic?
Honey trap in Arabic is فَخّ الْعَسَل (faḵḵ al-ʕasal). See Honey trap meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is honey trap?
Honey trap can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of honey trap?
The plural of honey trap is honey traps.

Words near honey trap in the dictionary

  1. honey sticks
  2. honey stomach
  3. honey stomachs
  4. honey tangerine
  5. honey toast
  6. honey trap
  7. honey trapped
  8. honey trapper
  9. honey trappers
  10. honey trapping
  11. honey traps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: honey 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-honey trap.ogg.

Cite this entry: “honey trap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/honey_trap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.