Word.ws English Dictionary

mousetrap

/ˈmaʊsˌtɹæp/

mousetrap noun: a device for capturing or killing mice and other rodents.

Noun

mousetrap (countable and uncountable, plural mousetraps)

  1. (countable) A device for capturing or killing mice and other rodents.
    Synonyms:
    mousefall
  2. (Internet, countable) A website designed to open another copy of itself when the user tries to close the webpage.
  3. (UK, informal, uncountable) Ordinary, everyday cheese.
  4. (New Zealand) A slice of bread or toast topped with cheese and then grilled or microwaved.
  5. (historical) An antisubmarine rocket used mainly during World War II by the US Navy and US Coast Guard.
    • Besides depth charges, they were armed with smaller forward firing antisubmarine rocket launchers called mousetraps. Fired in groups, these rockets detonated when they contacted a submarine.2003, Nautical Research Journal, volume 48, page 199

Verb

mousetrap (third-person singular simple present mousetraps, present participle mousetrapping, simple past and past participle mousetrapped)

  1. (figuratively, transitive) To trap; to trick or fool (someone) into a bad situation.
    • He hoped to bring the rebels out of their trenches for a showdown battle somewhere south of the Wilderness, that gloomy expanse of scrub oaks and pines where Lee had mousetrapped Joe Hooker exactly a year earlier.1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, page 724
  2. (Internet, transitive) To prevent (the user) from leaving a website by opening another copy when it is closed.
    • The scammer is paid for each new visitor directed to his site. There is nothing wrong except that the user finds it impossible to leave the site because he is mousetrapped.2005, Armando Ang, Greed & Scams, Inc

mousetrap meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Persian and Vietnamese

mousetrap in Hindi

device for killing mice
चूहादान cūhādān

mousetrap in Tamil

எலிப்பொறி, பத்தாயம்

mousetrap in Persian

device for killing mice
تلهموش tale-muš

mousetrap in Vietnamese

device for killing mice
bẫy chuột

Synonyms of mousetrap

Forms of mousetrap

Noun
pluralmousetraps
alternative formmouse trap
Verb
third-person singular presentmousetraps
present participlemousetrapping
past participlemousetrapped
pastmousetrapped

Origin of mousetrap

From Middle English mouse-trappe, mous trappe, mouse trape, equivalent to mouse + trap. Cognate with Dutch muizetrap, muizentrap (“mousetrap”), German Low German Muustrappe, Muustrapp (“mousetrap”). In the Internet sense, refers to a computer mouse.

Words formed from mousetrap

Phrases with mousetrap

Questions about mousetrap

What does mousetrap mean?
Mousetrap means a device for capturing or killing mice and other rodents.
What is mousetrap in Hindi?
Mousetrap in Hindi is चूहादान (cūhādān). See Mousetrap meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is mousetrap?
Mousetrap can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce mousetrap?
Mousetrap is pronounced /ˈmaʊsˌtɹæp/.
What is the plural of mousetrap?
The plural of mousetrap is mousetraps.

Words near mousetrap in the dictionary

  1. mousesona
  2. mousesonas
  3. mousetail
  4. mousetails
  5. mousetaur
  6. mousetrap
  7. mousetrap gun
  8. mousetrap guns
  9. mousetrap man
  10. mousetrap men
  11. mousetrapped

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mousetrap (page history and authors); mousetrap (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-mousetrap.wav.

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