Search the Dictionary

A snare of insidious meshes designed to catch the ignorant and unwary. I can not but lament thy splendid wit Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools. Cowper.

brance. [Obs.] Extol not riches then, the toil of fools, The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare. Milton.

Full of, or characterized by, deceit; serving to mislead or insnare; trickish; fraudulent; cheating; insincere. Harboring foul deceitful thoughts. Shak.

elieve what is true; to impose upon; to mislead; to cheat; to disappoint; to delude; to insnare. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2 Tim. iii. 13. Nimble jugglers that deceive the eye. Shak. What can 'scape the eye Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart Milton.…

To lead into danger by artifice; to lure into a net or snare; to entrap; to insnare; to allure; to entice; as, to decoy troops into an ambush; to decoy ducks into a net. Did to a lonely cot his steps decoy. Thomson. E'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy. Goldsmith.…

Again; afterwards; soon; quickly. [Obs.] I wold never eft comen into the snare. Spenser.

plications as to render extrication a bewildering difficulty; hence, metaphorically, to insnare; to perplex; to bewilder; to puzzle; as, to entangle the feet in a net, or in briers. "Entangling alliances." Washington. The difficulties that perplex men's thoughts and entangle their understandings. Locke. Allowing her to…

To take with toils or bring into toils; to insnare. [R.] Entoiled in woofed phantasies. Keats.

To catch in a trap; to insnare; hence, to catch, as in a trap, by artifices; to involve in difficulties or distresses; to catch or involve in contradictions; as, to be entrapped by the devices of evil men. A golden mesh, to entrap the hearts of men. Shak.

To become insnared or embarrassed; to be entrapped; to be worse off than before; asm to fall into error; to fall into difficulties.

A trap or snare. [Obs.] To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud. Milton. Constructive fraud (Law), an act, statement, or omission which operates as a fraud, although perhaps not intended to be such. Mozley & W. -- Pious fraud (Ch. Hist.), a fraud contrived and executed to benefit the church or accomplish some good end,…

Contrivance; artifice; a trap; a snare. Chaucer. Spenser.

manner of moving smoothly, swiftly, and without labor or obstruction. They prey at last ensnared, he dreadful darts, With rapid glide, along the leaning line. Thomson. Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself, And with indented glides did slip away. Shak.

A snare; a gin. [Obs.] Like a bird that hasteth to his grin. Remedy of Love.

To put a hamper or fetter on; to shackle; to insnare; to inveigle; hence, to impede in motion or progress; to embarrass; to encumber. "Hampered nerves." Blackmore. A lion hampered in a net. L'Estrange. They hamper and entangle our souls. Tillotson.

To lay snares for rabbits. Huloet.

A snare; a trap. [R.] Shak.

Capable of being insnared or entrapped. [R.] Cudworth.

To insnare; to entrap; to entangle; to catch. Let not the surpassing eloquence of Taylor dazzle you, nor his scholastic retairy versatility of logic illaqueate your good sense. Coleridge.

A snare; a trap. Johnson.