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Glite Dictionary
🏚️ A bad building 🪤 A rat catcher 🕳️ A hard situation
rattrap

rattrap

1 9.9
A difficult situation that is hard to escape from
  • noun
  • /ˈrætˌtræp/
translation icon : trampa
  • I knew you'd get out of that rattrap.

Examples

  • Oh, you know you'd be doing me a big personal favor, Butchie, if you would, uh, take this rattrap down.

    Watercolor Postcards (2013)

  • You better look me up when you get out of this rattrap.

    Knock on Any Door (1949)

  • I think she'd be happy to get out of this rattrap.

    Head of State (2003)

  • You can wave bye-bye to that rattrap in one minute.

    Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997)

  • I knew you'd get out of that rattrap.

    Willow (1988)

  • After weeks of trying to solve the puzzle, I realized I was in a real rattrap with no way out.

  • The company's financial troubles had turned into a rattrap, making it difficult to recover.

  • The more he tried to explain, the deeper he got into the rattrap of contradictions.

Antonyms

solution
∞ 2.1

An answer to a problem or a way to deal with a difficult situation

escape
320 1.1

An act of getting away from a place where you are kept or are in danger

How Difficult

dead end
91 3.6
rattrap
1 9.9
in a tight spot
  • Informal
8 4.2
problem
∞ 1.2

Surface Forms

rattrap singular
rattraps plural

Morphology

rattrap = rat + trap (semi-transparent) = rat + trap

The word is used metaphorically for an entangling or inescapable situation; 'trap' sense helps but the specific idiomatic sense is not fully predictable from parts.

Etymology

Rattrap was also used as a picture of being caught, like a rat stuck in a trap, and the familiar word trap means 'something that catches'. So a rattrap can mean a difficult situation that is hard to escape.