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Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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language hat Link to this
Trapan: a trick or trap.
language hat Link to this
That was the Companion's definition.
The OED has a perhaps better one:
'A person who entraps or decoys others into actions or positions which may be to his advantage and to their ruin or loss.'
in Aqua Scripto Link to this
Trapan, Trepan
3 distinct meanings; an expansion on LH's neat input.
ME trepane carpenters tool , auger, to bore
trick or trap
1. A person who entraps or decoys others into actions or positions which may be to his advantage and to their ruin or loss. Also applied to an animal (quot. 1686).
1641 T. JORDAN Walks of Islington II. ii. (1657) Dijb, If we had known you had been a Trapan, you should ne'r have been admitted into our company. 1653 (title) The Total Rout, or a Brief Discovery Of a Pack of Knaves and Drabs, intituled Pimps, Panders, Hectors, Trapans, Nappers, Mobs, and Spanners
1. A surgical instrument in the form of a crown-saw, for cutting out small pieces of bone, esp. from the skull.
1525 tr. Jerome of Brunswick's Surg. xxxiv. Hj/2 If the bone be stronge, bore ther throughe many holes with the trappane.
2. A military engine formerly used in sieges: ? for boring holes in walls. Obs.