Traps

Traps are devices or tactic intended to harm, capture, detect, or inconvenience an intruder. Traps may be physical objects, such as cages or snares, or metaphorical concepts of traps.

Examples of physical, usually mechanical, traps include:

* Animal traps, often used to obtain the fur or meat of wild animals.
* Booby traps, a mechanism designed to capture or harm unsuspecting humans.
* Heligoland traps, a large funnel-shaped structure used to trap birds.
* Insect traps, used to capture insects.
* Man-traps
* Mousetraps, designed to catch mice. See also Mousetrap (disambiguation).
* Trapdoor traps, a recessed (often hidden) door in a floor or ceiling.

Metaphorical traps

Examples of metaphorical traps or conceptual traps include:

* Canary traps, a method for exposing an information leak.
* High level equilibrium traps, a concept used to explain why China never underwent an indigenous Industrial Revolution.
* Honey traps, a form of sting operation in law enforcement.
* Liquidity traps, a concept in economics involving a stagnant economy and low interest rates.
* Speed traps, a tactic designed to catch speed limit violators; it may also refer to a place where such a tactic is commonly used.
* Verbal traps, a statement or question phrased in such a way that any valid response would imply something the responder does not intend.
* Welfare traps, a phenomenon by which social policies interact to keep people dependent on welfare; related concepts include the unemployment traps and poverty traps.