"elephant trap" meaning in English

See elephant trap in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈɛlɪf(ə)nt ˌtɹæp/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈɛləfənt ˌtɹæp/ [General-American] Forms: elephant traps [plural]
Etymology: From elephant + trap, alluding to the fact that a trap for an elephant needs to be quite large, and so ought to be easily seen. Etymology templates: {{ref|From the collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.|group=n|name=n1}}, {{compound|en|elephant|trap|notext=1|type=endocentric}} elephant + trap Head templates: {{en-noun}} elephant trap (plural elephant traps)
  1. A trap which can easily be avoided by a competent person, and thus proves the incompetence of anybody trapped by it. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-elephant_trap-en-noun-3RLc4a-3
  2. (chess) Often in the form Elephant Trap: a faulty attempt by White to win a pawn in a popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is generally only effective against inexperienced players. Tags: figuratively Categories (topical): Chess Categories (lifeform): Elephants Translations ((chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn): parany de l'elefant [masculine] (Catalan), trampa de l'elefant [feminine] (Catalan), piège de l’éléphant [masculine] (French), എലിഫന്റ് ട്രാപ്പ് (eliphanṟŭ ṭrāppŭ) (Malayalam), сло̀новска за̑мка [Cyrillic, feminine] (Serbo-Croatian), slònovska zȃmka [Roman, feminine] (Serbo-Croatian), யானைப் பொறி (yāṉaip poṟi) (Tamil), bẫy elephant (Vietnamese)
    Sense id: en-elephant_trap-en-noun-yBKpDMDD Disambiguation of Elephants: 10 90 Categories (other): English endocentric compounds, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys, Pages with raw sortkeys Disambiguation of English endocentric compounds: 18 82 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 16 84 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 13 87 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 9 91 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 15 85 Disambiguation of Pages with raw sortkeys: 13 87 Topics: board-games, chess, games Disambiguation of '(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn': 2 98

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for elephant trap meaning in English (5.4kB)

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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "To show he doesn’t do his fair share of work, I’ve set him an elephant trap. If he falls in he’ll look like a clown.",
          "type": "example"
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          "_dis": "10 90",
          "kind": "lifeform",
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          "orig": "en:Elephants",
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      "glosses": [
        "Often in the form Elephant Trap: a faulty attempt by White to win a pawn in a popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is generally only effective against inexperienced players."
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      "id": "en-elephant_trap-en-noun-yBKpDMDD",
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          "attempt",
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        ],
        [
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          "white#Noun"
        ],
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          "win",
          "win#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "pawn",
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        ],
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          "popular",
          "popular#Adjective"
        ],
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          "variation"
        ],
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          "Queen's Gambit Declined",
          "Queen's Gambit Declined"
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        [
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          "inexperienced"
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        "(chess) Often in the form Elephant Trap: a faulty attempt by White to win a pawn in a popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is generally only effective against inexperienced players."
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          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
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          "word": "parany de l'elefant"
        },
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          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
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          "word": "trampa de l'elefant"
        },
        {
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          "code": "fr",
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          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
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        },
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          "code": "ml",
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          "roman": "eliphanṟŭ ṭrāppŭ",
          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
          "word": "എലിഫന്റ് ട്രാപ്പ്"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
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        },
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          "code": "ta",
          "lang": "Tamil",
          "roman": "yāṉaip poṟi",
          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
          "word": "யானைப் பொறி"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "2 98",
          "code": "vi",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
          "word": "bẫy elephant"
        }
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      "ipa": "/ˈɛləfənt ˌtɹæp/",
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  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Emmanuel Frémiet"
  ],
  "word": "elephant trap"
}
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        "(chess) Often in the form Elephant Trap: a faulty attempt by White to win a pawn in a popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, which is generally only effective against inexperienced players."
      ],
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    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɛləfənt ˌtɹæp/",
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    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "parany de l'elefant"
    },
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "trampa de l'elefant"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "piège de l’éléphant"
    },
    {
      "code": "ml",
      "lang": "Malayalam",
      "roman": "eliphanṟŭ ṭrāppŭ",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "word": "എലിഫന്റ് ട്രാപ്പ്"
    },
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      "code": "sh",
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      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "word": "сло̀новска за̑мка"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "tags": [
        "Roman",
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "slònovska zȃmka"
    },
    {
      "code": "ta",
      "lang": "Tamil",
      "roman": "yāṉaip poṟi",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "word": "யானைப் பொறி"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "sense": "(chess) faulty attempt by White to win a pawn",
      "word": "bẫy elephant"
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  "wikipedia": [
    "Emmanuel Frémiet"
  ],
  "word": "elephant trap"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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