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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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Dropla also created the Droplet Device – a portable AI unit that attaches to drone controllers, allowing soldiers to detect mines on supply routes in real time.—
David Kirichenko,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
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The insurance crisis is the canary in the coal mine for the climate crisis, and the canary is dying.—
Giulia Carbonaro,
MSNBC Newsweek,
15 Sep. 2025
Noun
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According to Champion, the wedding went off without a hitch — in no small part because her husband-to-be was very hands-on throughout the planning process.—
Shania Russell,
Entertainment Weekly,
14 Sep. 2025
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The two-door, three-person Can-Am Defender Limited and the four-door, six-person Defender Max Limited have 82-horsepower engines, power steering, tow hitches with a 2,500-pound towing capacity, winches, air conditioning and heating, a full hard roof and a three-position tilt-up glass windshield.—
Steve Waters,
Miami Herald,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Invita Cafe, a San Diego coffee shop, is being scrutinized and review-bombed on social media for pro-Charlie Kirk posts and products as part of a broader national response on both sides of the political aisle to last week's assassination of the conservative commentator.—
Nick Mordowanec,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
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Forget the marketing campaign that bombed.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
16 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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While this usually indicates a healthy corporate sector, some worry this narrowness may lead investors to misprice risks, particularly as some industries hit snags in an uncertain economic environment.—
Sasha Rogelberg,
Fortune,
12 Sep. 2025
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On the northeast and east side, firefighting crews continue to mop up and strengthen existing lines by removing snags and completing hose lays across steep, rocky terrain, and old-growth vegetation.—
CA WILDFIRE BOT,
Sacbee.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Booby-trap.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/booby-trap. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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