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as in hitch
a danger or difficulty that is hidden or not easily recognized
he noticed the booby trap in the interviewer's question just a little too late
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of booby-trap
Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2025
Officers then evacuated the home and called the Los Angeles County bomb squad to clear the home of additional booby traps, according to police.
—Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2025
Trail cams may be easily spotted and removed – though the risk of booby traps can make this challenging – but they can quickly be replaced.
—David Hambling, Forbes, 21 Jan. 2025
Jun-ho’s drone picks up on a door on the ground that turns out to be a booby trap that kills one person and injures another.
—Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 26 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for booby-trap
Noun
Last month gangs burned or confiscated at least a half-dozen armored carriers belonging to the police and the mission after setting booby traps and catching cops off guard.
—Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2025
Officers then evacuated the home and called the Los Angeles County bomb squad to clear the home of additional booby traps, according to police.
—Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2025
Trail cams may be easily spotted and removed – though the risk of booby traps can make this challenging – but they can quickly be replaced.
—David Hambling, Forbes, 21 Jan. 2025
Jun-ho’s drone picks up on a door on the ground that turns out to be a booby trap that kills one person and injures another.
—Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 26 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for booby-trap
Recent Examples of Synonyms for booby-trap
Verb
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Charlie was the best of America, and the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country.—
Chad de Guzman,
Time,
11 Sep. 2025
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Estonian police said the drone was likely en route to attack targets inside Russia.—
David Brennan,
ABC News,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Earlier this year, a titanium mine was slated for construction on the edge of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, an unusually diverse ecosystem that is home to some of the country’s most pristine wetlands.—
David Gelles,
Time,
9 Sep. 2025
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Cameco is the best way to play the nuclear power resurgence with a business model that spans the value chain from uranium mines to reactors, according to the equity research firm CLSA.—
Spencer Kimball,
CNBC,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Lamb’s first drop of the night came on a first-quarter hitch route that looked more like a miscommunication on the route between him and quarterback Dak Prescott.—
Nick Harris,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
5 Sep. 2025
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But organizers of the reunion maintain their event went on without a hitch and that what happened afterwards was an unrelated outlier.—
Tess Kenny,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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For the first time, Israel launched an airstrike in Qatar, bombing a building in Doha that houses Hamas political leadership.—
Greg Dixon,
NPR,
9 Sep. 2025
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Israel has also regularly bombed the south.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
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There are different ways to demine territory, from using dogs to sniff out land mines to sappers—combat engineers focusing on clearing mines—manually working their way through an area, or operators remotely controlling large demining machines.—
Ellie Cook,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Aug. 2025
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In the rather chaotic encounter with journalists in the Oval Office, both Trump and Zelensky avoided stepping on any rhetorical land mines.—
Ben Wedeman,
CNN Money,
18 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The last is dumping iron dust into the Southern Ocean to provoke phytoplankton blooms that would suck heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a move that set off a backlash when an American entrepreneur tried it off Canada in 2012.—
Alec Luhn,
Scientific American,
11 Sep. 2025
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Flip that switch, and suddenly every market becomes accessible, and good ideas trapped behind a language wall get unleashed.—
Liz Hoffman,
semafor.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Pilots allow organizations to learn, adapt, and de-risk before scaling up.—
Peter Bendor-Samuel,
Forbes.com,
12 Sep. 2025
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Getting confronted with gruesome, horrific imagery has, unfortunately, become an assumed risk when logging onto social media.—
Charles Trepany,
USA Today,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
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For the evening, the top priority remains the east flank of the fire, reinforcing fire lines made during previous shifts and preparing for potential strategic firing operations by removing snags.—
CA WILDFIRE BOT,
Sacbee.com,
6 Sep. 2025
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Prescott and the Cowboys’ offense took full advantage on their opening drive, using the run game to open up the play-action game, which culminated in star receiver CeeDee Lamb’s first catch, a 32-yard snag.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Booby-trap.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/booby-trap. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.
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