Bear trap
bear trap
noun phrase
A police radar trap for speeders
[1970s+ Citizens band; related to Smokey Bear, ”policeman”]
Historical Examples
Our bear trap was discharged, but we could not find the animal for want of a dog.
Audubon and his Journals, Volume I (of 2) Maria R. Audubon
In Tennessee, I was told, it is a penitentiary offense to set out a bear trap.
Our Southern Highlanders Horace Kephart
On our trip to-day, we found a bear trap, made of heavy logs, the lid arranged to fall when the bear entered and touched the bait.
The Citizen-Soldier John Beatty
Not fur from where we are now, he stepped into a bear trap that was hid in the leaves, like this one.
Our Southern Highlanders Horace Kephart
The first bear trap that we came to, we found a “porky” in it.
Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock
You’d have to have bear traps to catch him, and it’s no joke to set a bear trap.
Jack the Young Trapper George Bird Grinnell
One of his hands was caught in a bear trap fastened to a cottonwood.
Crooked Trails and Straight William MacLeod Raine
Just at present I’ve got my foot in a bear trap, but I’ll pull out somehow.
Peter F. Hopkinson Smith
Uncle said it looked as though the men intended to steal the bear trap and all.
Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock
It seems that I have poked my head into every bear trap in the kingdom.
The Puppet Crown Harold MacGrath
Read Also:
- Bear up
to hold up; support: to bear the weight of the roof. to hold or remain firm under (a load): The roof will not bear the strain of his weight. to bring forth (young); give birth to: to bear a child. to produce by natural growth: a tree that bears fruit. to hold up under; be […]
- Bear with
to hold up; support: to bear the weight of the roof. to hold or remain firm under (a load): The roof will not bear the strain of his weight. to bring forth (young); give birth to: to bear a child. to produce by natural growth: a tree that bears fruit. to hold up under; be […]
- Bearwood
a buckthorn, Rhamnus purshiana, the bark of which yields the drug cascara sagrada. Historical Examples I sent your gift-books of Hawthorne, yesterday, to the Walters of bearwood, who had never heard of them! Yesterdays with Authors James T. Fields noun another name for cascara (sense 2)
- Bear's
any of the plantigrade, carnivorous or omnivorous mammals of the family Ursidae, having massive bodies, coarse heavy fur, relatively short limbs, and almost rudimentary tails. any of various animals resembling the bear, as the ant bear. a gruff, burly, clumsy, bad-mannered, or rude person. a person who believes that market prices, especially of stocks, will […]
- Bear's-breech
noun a widely cultivated S European acanthus plant, Acanthus mollis, having whitish purple-veined flowers