Word.ws English Dictionary

trapes

trapes is the alternative spelling of traipse in reduced usage.

Noun

trapes

  1. (colloquial, seldom in use since about WWII) A slattern; an idle, sluttish, or untidy woman.
    • But when he found the sullen Trapes ¶ Possest with th’ Devil, Worms, and Claps,1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in...
    • From door to door I'd sooner whine and beg, ¶ Than marry such a trapes.1715, John Gay, The What D'Ye Call It

Forms of trapes

Verb
third-person singular presenttrapeses
present participletrapesing
past participletrapesed
pasttrapesed
Noun
pluraltrapeses

Origin of trapes

Obscure, as is common among colloquialisms. OED mentions possible association with Dutch trappen (“to tread or stamp the foot”), but objects that the connection is unconvincing.

See trape.

Questions about trapes

What does trapes mean?
Trapes means a slattern; an idle, sluttish, or untidy woman.
What is trapes the alternative spelling of?
Trapes is the alternative spelling of traipse in reduced usage.
What part of speech is trapes?
Trapes is a noun.
What is the plural of trapes?
The plural of trapes is trapeses.

Words near trapes in the dictionary

  1. trapdoored
  2. trapdooring
  3. trapdoors
  4. trape
  5. traped
  6. trapes
  7. trapesed
  8. trapeses
  9. trapesing
  10. trapesings
  11. trapezate

Source and license

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