trap

trampoline = T = trap door

trap

1. n. A program interrupt, usually an interrupt caused by some exceptional situation in the user program. In most cases, the OS performs some action, then returns control to the program. 2. vi. To cause a trap. "These instructions trap to the monitor." Also used transitively to indicate the cause of the trap. "The monitor traps all input/output instructions."

This term is associated with assembler programming (`interrupt' or `exception' is more common among HLL programmers) and appears to be fading into history among programmers as the role of assembler continues to shrink. However, it is still important to computer architects and systems hackers (see system, sense 1), who use it to distinguish deterministically repeatable exceptions from timing-dependent ones (such as I/O interrupts).

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk.

In printing terminology it is the overlap of two colors that fit tightly together to prevent a seam from being visible. When printing was more photography based (meaning manually manipulated) creating trap was an ordeal since our stubby little fingers have a hard time dealing with hundredths of an inch. With the popularization of dtp technology creating trap became more of a menu option and less of a headache.

To trap, just get the pinball to come to a stop at the bottom of the V-shape formed when the flipper is held in the up position. Then the flipper can be released, and the ball is moving much more slowly, making it easier to aim at a specific target on the playfield. It may also allow the player to catch their breath, take a pause, examine the playfield, and in newer machines, get the status of the goals completed and pending.

The most common way to trap is to just hold the flipper up as the ball comes down the inlane. However, this can be dangerous if the player does not judge the speed properly. It is quite possible for the ball to be going fast enough that just holding up the flipper will merely cause the ball to roll up and over the end of the flipper, with little enough momentum that it will simply drain down the middle.

The trap can also be done by keeping the flipper up as the ball comes down the playfield, where it will bounce off the flipper and up through the inlane. If the ball is going fast enough, it can exit through the top of the inlane. Older machines allowed the ball to come back down through, setting off the trigger again. Newer machines are busy enough that either the ball will deflect into the playfield, or it will come back down through the outlane. This method is thus not recommended on newer machines

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Every water-using fixture in a building is an endpoint to the city water system (or a private water system, in well-fed buildings) and an origin point of a sewer or septic system. The problem with this fact - which greatly slowed the spread of indoor plumbing in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries - is that gasses from the sewer system tend to rise and spill out of fixtures connected to it. Anyone who has encountered these gasses can attest to their vile and unhealthy nature, and in the early days of plumbing they could render whole buildings uninhabitable.

A number of solutions were attempted throughout the years, but the most successful (and thus most common today) is the trap, a sideways-S-shaped pipe that - you guessed it - traps the gasses and prevents them from making their way up through the fixture. Basically, there's a dip in the pipe just below the fixture (half of the "S" shape), after which it the pipe turns upwards again (to form the other half of the "S".) This "traps" water in the dip; this water seal prevents the exchange of gasses between the sewer and the air of the building.

Here's some bad ASCII art, which might make things a little clearer:

                               ^
                               |  
                          to fixture
                               
                     ___      | |
                    / _ \     | |
                   / / \ \    | |
awful stench -->  / /   \ \   | |
                  | |   |-|   |-|
                  | |   \ \   / /
                  | |    \ \_/ /  <-- water
                  | |     \___/

                   |
                   V
               to sewer

You'll recognize traps under sinks in your home, where they're plainly visible, but they're also present in any other fixture connected to the sewer system. They may be concealed inside the fixture, behind a wall or under the floor, as in tubs and showers, but trust me - they're there. You'd know if they weren't.

Early traps were problematic - the siphon effect of water flowing into the sewer tended to pull the water seal down with it, or back pressure in the sewer lines would blow the water seal back into the fixture (yech.) In 1874, however, an unidentified but clever plumber realized that the pressure in the sewer-side of the system could be equalized with normal atmospheric pressure by means of a vent pipe. Modern plumbing systems all include a venting system that aggregates the vents from all of the traps in the system to an output (called a "stack vent" or "stink pipe," depending on who you talk to) that can be routed to an inoffensive location (usually the roof). Leaks in this venting system can release foul odors; alternately, if it clogs then traps may lose their water seals and begin to release gas themselves.

The water seal in infrequently-used fixtures may eventually evaporate, with unpleasant results. If a disused sink or tub starts to smell bad, that's probably the cause - just run some water down it to re-establish the seal in the trap.

Sources: Kentucky State Plumbing Code, 815 KAR 20:010 (Section 1, "Definition of Terms,") http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/kar/815/020/010.htm
"Plumbing Care & Repair Handbook," http://www.theplumber.com/handbook.html
"The New World: Plumbing History," http://www.plumbingstore.com/psamerica.html

TRAP

To understand trap; to know one's own interest.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

TRAPS

Constables and thief-takers. CANT.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

In certain seedy parts of the internet, trap is a semi-pejorative term for a young, pretty pre-op trans girl. It spawns from imageboards focused on posting risqué images or outright porn, and the origins within there should be pretty obvious -- the beautiful girl is a "trap" because her offending anatomy is concealed until a certain point, after which people have a Crying Game reaction (vomiting). Except in this case I think the majority of these people were doing so ironically, because the topics with these images were always popular and I'm sure the same people kept coming back for more every time.

Entire new imageboards started that were dedicated to traps, with the joking disgust reaction getting seeped out of it. And since the pretty trans girls being called traps were themselves parts of these imageboard communities and using the terms for themselves, it kind of lost its offensive connotation altogether over time... within those communities, at least.

I lurked some of these imageboards as a young teenager. For me, seeing how beautiful these unfortunate girls became was a massive inspiration, and many of them had really hardened personalities -- either for better or for worse. I admired their strength to persevere through the tough times they were constantly talking about, and I loved the advice they gave to other people who wanted to transition. They were more real than any other trans people I'd heard of; they made transition seem like something I could actually do.

Of course, these communities only worked because most of the trans girls involved had very low self esteem and leeched confidence from the anonymous masses: teenage guys looking to jerk off. They were inherently degrading websites and it's weird that I'm writing something so positive about them. But I feel like I can justify it, because it seems like most trans people have an offensive thing that got them interested in transition.

Many times I've seen younger generations of trans people, people like me, get scolded by older generations for not understanding transgender history. A lot of people my age hate drag queens, often crossdressers in general, because they think that those people give other gender variant people a "bad name" in the cisnormative public eye -- but older generations remind us that many trans women started as drag queens, or crossdressing performers of other sorts, and that many homeless trans people have found shelter and comfort with people from the drag community.

Unfortunately I can't pretend to know a lot about these sorts of things, because I wasn't (and am not) there. But the parallel I'm drawing is obviously this: Since we live in a transphobic society, it's perfectly natural for trans girls to discover themselves with transphobic things. It's important for us to try to unwind how these experiences might affect our self-image, but it's also important not to blame ourselves for doing things that may have been offensive in the past. We're a product of our world, which teaches us to hate ourselves.

And that is why I can simultaneously think that traps are awesome, and traps are terrible. I don't like what the term obviously implies about the people it describes, but I have a lot of fondness for people who self-identify as traps. These communities meant something to me. At the same time, I envy a future generation of trans kids that might have better role models so they don't have to think about things like this. Maybe having trans women like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox visible in the media is the first step to being there.

Trap (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Trapped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Trapping.] [Akin to OE. trappe trappings, and perhaps from an Old French word of the same origin as E. drab a kind of cloth.]

To dress with ornaments; to adorn; -- said especially of horses.

Steeds . . . that trapped were in steel all glittering. Chaucer.

To deck his hearse, and trap his tomb-black steed. Spenser.

There she found her palfrey trapped In purple blazoned with armorial gold. Tennyson.

© Webster 1913.

Trap, n. [Sw. trapp; akin to trappa stairs, Dan. trappe, G. treppe, D. trap; -- so called because the rocks of this class often occur in large, tabular masses, rising above one another, like steps. See Tramp.] Geol.

An old term rather loosely used to designate various dark-colored, heavy igneous rocks, including especially the feldspathic-augitic rocks, basalt, dolerite, amygdaloid, etc., but including also some kinds of diorite. Called also trap rock.

Trap tufa, Trap tuff, a kind of fragmental rock made up of fragments and earthy materials from trap rocks.

© Webster 1913.

Trap, a.

Of or pertaining to trap rock; as, a trap dike.

© Webster 1913.

Trap, n. [OE. trappe, AS. treppe; akin to OD.trappe, OHG. trapo; probably fr. the root of E. tramp, as that which is trod upon: cf. F. trappe, which is trod upon: cf. F. trappe, which perhaps influenced the English word.]

1.

A machine or contrivance that shuts suddenly, as with a spring, used for taking game or other animals; as, a trap for foxes.

She would weep if that she saw a mouse Caught in a trap. Chaucer.

2.

Fig.: A snare; an ambush; a stratagem; any device by which one may be caught unawares.

Let their table be made a snare and a trap. Rom. xi. 9.

God and your majesty Protect mine innocence, or I fall into The trap is laid for me! Shak.

3.

A wooden instrument shaped somewhat like a shoe, used in the game of trapball. It consists of a pivoted arm on one end of which is placed the ball to be thrown into the air by striking the other end. Also, a machine for throwing into the air glass balls, clay pigeons, etc., to be shot at.

4.

The game of trapball.

5.

A bend, sag, or partitioned chamber, in a drain, soil pipe, sewer, etc., arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents passage of air or gas, but permits the flow of liquids.

6.

A place in a water pipe, pump, etc., where air accumulates for want of an outlet.

7.

A wagon, or other vehicle.

Thackeray.

8.

A kind of movable stepladder.

Knight.

Trap stairs, a staircase leading to a trapdoor. -- Trap tree Bot. the jack; -- so called because it furnishes a kind of birdlime. See 1st Jack.

© Webster 1913.

Trap (?), v. t. [AS. treppan. See Trap a snare.]

1.

To catch in a trap or traps; as, to trap foxes.

2.

Fig.: To insnare; to take by stratagem; to entrap.

Dryden.

3.

To provide with a trap; to trap a drain; to trap a sewer pipe. See 4th Trap, 5.

© Webster 1913.

Trap, v. i.

To set traps for game; to make a business of trapping game; as, to trap for beaver.

© Webster 1913.