rat-trap

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a trap designed to catch or kill rats, typically by snapping shut

   They bought a wire rat-trap and set it beside the open rat-hole.

2. 2
   adj

   resembling the snapping jaws of a rat trap, especially in closing tightly or having a wide, ugly mouth

   The bird seized the insect in its rat-trap beak.

A compound of rat + trap. The noun names a device for catching rats; the figurative adjective compares a mouth, beak, or mechanism to the trap's wide opening and sudden snap.

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