pitfalling

The practice of setting up and using pitfalls to capture animals.

Adjective

  1. entrapping; ensnaring
    • able to shew us the ways of the Lord straight and faithful as they are, not full of cranks and contradictions, and pitfalling dispenses - 1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […]...
    • But always with my future as Nicholas's illustration of moral pitfalling possibilities. - 2013, Julian Mitchell, Imaginary Toys:
    • If one is looking for evidence of last-days decadence in New York during the pitfalling 1970s—which had an entirely different feel from the money-first decadence of the 1980s, except that obth involved turckloads of...

Noun

  1. The practice of setting up and using pitfalls to capture animals.
    • Here is all the evidence of which we are at present cognizant; but is it not almost enough to start a party for New Zealand in the hope of trapping, toiling, or pitfalling, —anything but shooting, —the biggest bird in...
    • Hunting, poisoning, trapping, pitfalling and other types of extermination campaigns are carried out and are sometimes organized by local authorities. - 2013, C.A. Tisdell, Wild Pigs: Environmental Pest or Economic...
    • When pitfalling in dry areas, birds and other animals soon learn where to get a drink. - 2023, George C. McGavin, Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou, Essential Entomology, page 287:
  2. The process or act of succumbing to an unexpected hazard or pitfall.
    • Now, falling in love is one thing, but pitfalling is another. A man dislikes the thought of being trapped into a marriage. - 1865, Coelbs Solon Smith, “A Case of Real Distress”, in Punch, volume 49, page 239:
    • It may take some trying and pitfalling, but the end result will be a lot more satisfying than George Babbitt's uniform. - 1961, Men's Wear - Volume 143, page 2:
    • Pitfalling can be by commission, when grouping members do something that gets them into trouble. Pitfalling can be by omission, when grouping members fail to anticipate and avoid, or to address and work through, a...