Trapping

How to spell trapping

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce trapping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trapping mean?

1. verbCatching or confining a person, animal, or thing so that escape is impossible.

Trapping in a sentence

• The ranger reported illegal trapping of foxes on the estate.

• Sealing the windows risks trapping stale air inside the room.

Where does trapping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the -ing form of the verb 'trap', which goes back to the Old English noun 'treppe', meaning a snare or pitfall for catching animals. The root is Germanic, and related forms survive in Dutch and Low German words for a stairway or step, hinting at an older sense of a device you tread on. From the noun came the verb 'to trap', recorded from the medieval period, meaning to catch in such a device, and figuratively to corner or confine. The spelling doubles the final 'p' when the suffix is added, following the standard English rule that a short stressed vowel in a single-syllable word keeps its sound by doubling the closing consonant; this is the same pattern seen in 'stopping' and 'tapping'. The separate plural noun 'trappings', meaning ornamental accessories or outward signs, comes by a different route from the Old French 'drap', meaning cloth, but the modern spelling has converged with the verb form.

How the word is built

• trap (a snare or device for catching)
• -p- (doubled consonant before suffix)
• -ing (present participle / gerund)