entrapment
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entrapment
entrapment, in law, the instigation of a crime in the attempt to obtain cause for a criminal prosecution. Situations in which a government operative merely provides the occasion for the commission of a criminal act (e.g., when an undercover agent posing as a narcotics dealer is approached by a would-be customer) do not constitute entrapment. Only when the crime was not initially contemplated by the target is entrapment said to occur: thus, for example, an undercover agent may not recruit a previously law-abiding individual into a drug distribution ring in order to prosecute. Many police operations, especially in the areas of drugs and gambling, raise questions of entrapment, which is available as a defense in a trial.
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entrapment
[en′trap·mənt] (geology)
The underground trapping of oil or gas reserves by folds, faults, domes, asphaltic seals, unconformities, and such.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Entrapment
Fear of Flyingmetaphor for housewife Isadora Wing’s temporary inability to achieve self-awareness. [Am. Lit.: Fear of Flying]
chained to detestable wife and unsalable farm. [Am. Lit.: Ethan Frome]
despite dreams of success, he is condemned to failure. [Am. Drama; Death of a Salesman, Payton, 397]
trapped in the domesticity demanded by her husband. [Nor. Lit.: Ibsen A Doll’s House]
aware that his life is meaningless and empty, he struggles to rise above it, but cannot. [Br. Lit.: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in Payton, 548]
tied to insane wife; cannot marry Jane Eyre. [Br. Lit.: Jane Eyre]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.