booby-trap 1 of 2

as in to attack
to place hidden explosive devices in or under booby-trapped the field bordering the army's camp

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booby trap

2 of 2

noun

1
as in mine
a usually concealed explosive device designed to go off when disturbed luckily, the bomb squad didn't find any booby traps

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2
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

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of booby-trap
Noun
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 And that does not even consider the likelihood of a beacon which is also a booby trap. David Hambling, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024 From guns to booby traps, Dutch leads the charge to take down the gnarly, terrifying looking alien. Lauren Brown West-Rosenthal, Parents, 28 Nov. 2024 Wary of booby traps and with evening closing in, the troops did not enter the building until the next day. James MacKenzie, Reuters, 18 Oct. 2024 See All Example Sentences for booby-trap
Recent Examples of Synonyms for booby-trap
Verb
  • Particularly his ability to do things at such high speed and to help begin attacking moves in his own half.
    Philipp Lahm, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2025
  • Police are searching for three suspects who were caught on video repeatedly attacking a 61-year-old trans woman outside of her convenience store in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood.
    Abby Monteil, Them., 29 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • On the monument to those killed, arrows point outward to Pennsylvania, where unarmed strikers were killed at the Lattimer mine in 1897, and to South Africa, where peaceful protesters were killed at an anti-apartheid rally in Sharpeville in 1960.
    Lauren Frayer, NPR, 19 Apr. 2025
  • The administration’s goal to address the National Energy Emergency is clearly high on its agenda, but doing so successfully will require a sustained effort to open mines and create critical mineral processing capacity outside of China.
    Ariel Cohen, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • The proposal goes off without a hitch as the two boys watch on.
    Angela Andaloro, People.com, 25 Apr. 2025
  • Her feed cut out a few times during the song's first verse, then continued without a hitch through the chorus.
    Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 19 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Within hours of Hamas’s attack, on October 7th, 2023, Israel began bombing Gaza.
    Colin Jones, New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2025
  • New York’s No. 1 romantic love bombs his new squeeze with grocery deliveries and an in-home masseuse visit, and Kate watches from the street as a pants-less Bronte runs out to tip the masseuse, who assures her that Joe Goldberg covered it all.
    Sara Netzley, EW.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Last summer, Duley, who lost both legs and an arm to an explosive device in Afghanistan in 2011, exhibited his images of unexploded land mines at Atelier Jolie.
    Melena Ryzik, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2025
  • The Ottawa Treaty bans the use of anti-personnel land mines and advocates for its destruction.
    Abhishek Bhardwaj, Interesting Engineering, 10 Feb. 2025
Verb
  • The animal is unlikely to attack unless trapped or provoked.
    Mike Stunson, Kansas City Star, 21 Apr. 2025
  • This basically involves compacting natural materials such as earth and gravel, extruding the air trapped inside and increasing density.
    Tom Mullen, Forbes.com, 20 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Rain could aid firefighting efforts and saturate dry fuels, reducing their risk of igniting in the future.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Apr. 2025
  • Here are suggestions for staying safe during a thunderstorm: To lower the risk of lightning strikes, when going outdoors, develop a plan to reach a safer spot.
    NC Weather Bot, Charlotte Observer, 24 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • In September 1856, the three-year-old, 171-foot long Steamboat Arabia, laden with over 200 tons of cargo bound for 16 frontier towns, struck a tree snag and quickly sank to the bottom of the Missouri River, just six miles west of Kansas City.
    Tammy Ljungblad, Kansas City Star, 22 Apr. 2025
  • More than a decade later, there are still up to 300 snags — dead standing trees — per acre in some of Yosemite’s most intensely affected areas, Stephens said.
    Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Booby-trap.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/booby-trap. Accessed 3 May. 2025.

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