TRAPDOOR • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Trapdoor

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noun

Trapdoor n.

(Arch.) A lifting or sliding door covering an opening in a roof or floor.

(Mining) A door in a level for regulating the ventilating current; called also weather door.

Trapdoor spider (Zool.), any one of several species of large spiders which make a nest consisting of a vertical hole in the earth, lined with a hinged lid, like a trapdoor. Most of the species belong to the genus Cteniza, as the California species (Cteniza Californica).

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Etymology of 'Trapdoor'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Trapdoor" Quotes from Famous Books

... once his mind was made up, wasted no time. The clock marked a quarter before twelve when he climbed up out of the lazarette, replaced the trapdoor, and hurried to set the table. He served the company through the noon meal, although it was all he could do to refrain from capsizing the big tureen of split-pea soup over the head of Simon Nishikanta. What did effectually ...

— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London

... path in which her slavering aggressors were slowly forcing her, a huge stone slab in the temple floor had begun to tilt up as if it were a trapdoor raised by an invisible hand. Within the yawning opening, Kirby caught a glimpse of stone steps ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various

... as you have been good enough to say that I am. You think that at the last there will be some relenting on my part. Disabuse yourself of that illusion. Friday, listen to me: No condemned criminal standing on the trapdoor of a scaffold ever occupied a more dangerous position than you do now. Refuse to co-operate with me in my purpose, and I give the signal that seals your fate—I spring the trap that lets you drop at once into perdition. That is all, ...

— Her Mother's Secret • Emma D. E. N. Southworth

... summer-house now.' I looked at his eyes. They were very small, but so bright that I think he saw by the light that went out of them. Then he took me up, and up again by a little stair in a corner of the room, and through another trapdoor, and there was one great round window above us, and I saw the blue sky and the clouds, and such lots of stars, all so big and shining as ...

— At the Back of the North Wind • George MacDonald