TRAPPED Synonyms: 96 Similar and Opposite Words

trapped 1 of 2

adjective

as in bound

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Dissimilar Words

trapped

2 of 2

verb

past tense of trap

as in tangled

to catch or hold as if in a net an ambitious young man who was now trapped in a series of shady business deals

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in grabbed

to take physical control or possession of (something) suddenly or forcibly finally trapped the annoying fly in the palm of his hand

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 trapped

Adjective

Keep the mulch a couple of inches away from the main stem of each rose to prevent trapped moisture that can cause rot. — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 6 Nov. 2026 Two decades later, Duckworth advocated for his evacuation when the surgeon became trapped in Gaza during a humanitarian medical mission. — Angela Haupt, Time, 4 Nov. 2026 The driver, 37, then reportedly closed the doors as the last child got off, but their backpack became trapped. — Gina Kalsi, PEOPLE, 4 Nov. 2026 Physicists have long wanted to peer inside these cores to see how trapped particles behave. — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 29 Oct. 2026 The male driver became trapped inside the vehicle and had to be removed by emergency personnel. — Nicole Buss, Sacbee.com, 25 Oct. 2026 Meet Helios Quantinuum builds what are called trapped ion quantum computers. — ArsTechnica, 20 Oct. 2026 Jaemor Farms employee Lynn Lewis even has a strategy for those who start to feel trapped. — Alexa Liacko, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026 Numerous investigations have documented how patients can become trapped in a revolving door of treatment, relapse and reenrollment, with each relapse putting them at risk of overdose and death. — Ilan Shrira, The Conversation, 13 Oct. 2026

Verb

According to a sheriff’s department report, Barnes was trapped in her vehicle when police arrived. — Post-Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2026 Several of those whales were endangered humpbacks trapped by crab gear, both commercial and recreational. — Anne Ewbank, Sacbee.com, 2 Nov. 2026 October’s list includes an epigenetic mechanism for why large dogs age faster than smaller ones; physicists who trapped a single particle of antimatter for months; and invisible tattoo inks that only show up under UV light. — ArsTechnica, 2 Nov. 2026 That includes crews to help search for and rescue people trapped or stranded by flooding. — Jennifer McRae, CBS News, 2 Nov. 2026 The temporary pause in fighting allowed humanitarian aid to enter the city and the evacuation of hundreds of people who had been trapped largely without access to food, water, electricity and medicine. — Elsa Ohlen, CNBC, 2 Nov. 2026 In Sedona, officials ordered residents near Oak Creek to leave Sunday as floodwaters trapped multiple people in their homes. — Christopher Weber, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2026 In the picturesque town of Sedona, Arizona, officials ordered residents near Oak Creek to leave Sunday as floodwaters trapped multiple people in their homes. — ABC News, 2 Nov. 2026 Rae, trapped in a ghetto in Novogrudok, watched the Nazis murder her mother and one of her sisters. — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for trapped

Adjective

The software does a decent job of automatically recognizing the edges of the paper, cropping or tilting pages when necessary, and flattening the curves characteristic of facing pages in bound books.

— David English, PC Magazine, 4 Nov. 2026
The team checked this directly by computing how much of each galaxy's baryon budget actually stayed bound to the system.

— Paul Sutter, Space.com, 9 June 2026

Definition of bound

Verb

At the time, Daptone was grieving their star vocalist Sharon Jones and wasn’t officially working with new acts, while the sisters got tangled in a bad deal with another manager.

— Natelegé Whaley, VIBE.com, 3 Nov. 2026
Though dreams are tangled up in our desires, Freud’s royal road to the unconscious is not unlike the road in Lost Highway, and other similar Möbius strip horrors, such as the purgatorial Dead End.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 Oct. 2026

Definition of tangled

Verb

One of the officers grabbed a protester who was filming him and deployed pepper spray after a brief struggle.

— Jennah Pendleton, Sacbee.com, 5 Nov. 2026
The story grabbed worldwide attention and ended tragically when the baby’s body was found in the woods just a few miles from home.

— Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 4 Nov. 2026

Definition of grabbed

Adjective

Her path crosses with that of Inocência, an enslaved Black woman who possesses healing knowledge, knows the land, and devises her own strategies of resistance.

— Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026
Ten Southern state legislatures endorsed the idea by passing laws that allowed the freeing of an enslaved person only when deportation out of the state was arranged and paid for.

— Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of enslaved

Verb

Those who have been fully overtaken by the Bardo, with no hope of escape, are entrapped in giant puppet suits.

— Jane Bua, New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2026
How else could that show have ended, the way people were being entrapped, and, certainly, with the dubious legality of it all?

— Damon Wise, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of entrapped

Verb

Phillips caught a bad break when her approach to the green hit a tree branch on its upward flight and dropped 20 yards short of the green.

— Steve Galluzzo, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2026
China was also caught in the regional sell-off, with the tech-heavy STAR Market and the ChiNext Artificial Intelligence Index both tumbling more than 4%.

— Lee Ying Shan,Jenny Lee, CNBC, 6 Nov. 2026

Definition of caught

Adjective

That gave the team an additional visual reference during one of neurosurgery’s most confined operating environments.

— Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 27 Aug. 2026
Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces.

— Brie Stimson, FOXNews.com, 31 May 2026

Definition of confined

Browse Nearby Words

trapezists

trapped

trapper

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“Trapped.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/trapped. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of trapped

adjective

verb

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