ENSNARE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ensnare mean? 

• ENSNARE (verb)
  The verb ENSNARE has 2 senses:

1. take or catch as if in a snare or trap

2. catch in or as if in a trap

  Familiarity information: ENSNARE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENSNARE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ensnare    ... he / she / it ensnares   
Past simple: ensnared   
Past participle: ensnared   
-ing form: ensnaring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take or catch as if in a snare or trap

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

ensnare; entrap; frame; set up

Context example:

The innocent man was framed by the police

Hypernyms (to "ensnare" is one way to...):

cozen; deceive; delude; lead on (be false to; be dishonest with)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to ensnare the prisoners

Sense 2

Meaning:

Catch in or as if in a trap

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

ensnare; entrap; snare; trammel; trap

Context example:

The men trap foxes

Hypernyms (to "ensnare" is one way to...):

capture; catch (capture as if by hunting, snaring, or trapping)

Domain category:

hunt; hunting (the pursuit and killing or capture of wild animals regarded as a sport)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ensnare"):

gin (trap with a snare)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But I am not prepared, he went on, to deny—perhaps I may have been, without knowing it, in some degree prepared to admit—that I may have unwittingly ensnared that lady into an unhappy marriage.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)