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claptrap

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.03 sec.
clap·trap  (klptrp)
n.
Pretentious, insincere, or empty language: "I hate ... that air/Of claptrap, which your recent poets prize" (Byron).

[Obsolete claptrap, a theatrical trick to win applause : clap + trap.]

claptrap [ˈklæpˌtræp]
n Informal
1. contrived but foolish talk
2. insincere and pretentious talk politicians' claptrap
[C18 (in the sense: something contrived to elicit applause): from clap1 + trap1]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.claptrapclaptrap - pompous or pretentious talk or writing
grandiloquence, grandiosity, magniloquence, ornateness, rhetoric - high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation; "the grandiosity of his prose"; "an excessive ornateness of language"

claptrap
noun (Informal) nonsense, rubbish, rot, crap (slang), garbage (informal), trash, bunk (informal), bullshit (taboo slang), balls (taboo slang), bull (slang), shit (taboo slang), hot air (informal), tosh (slang, chiefly Brit.), flannel (Brit. informal), pap, cobblers (Brit. taboo slang), bilge (informal), humbug, drivel, twaddle, tripe (informal), affectation, guff (slang), blarney, bombast, moonshine, insincerity, hogwash, hokum (slang, chiefly U.S. & Canad.), piffle (informal), poppycock (informal), bosh (informal), eyewash (informal), tommyrot, horsefeathers (U.S. slang), bunkum or buncombe (chiefly U.S.) He talks a lot of pretentious claptrap.
Translations
claptrap [ˈklæptræp] N (pej) → burradas fpl, disparates mpl
claptrap [ˈklæptræp] nbaratin m >
claptrap
n (inf)Geschwafel nt (inf)
claptrap [ˈklæpˌtræp] n (pej, fam) → chiacchiere fpl, sciocchezze fpl
claptrap [ˈklæpˌtræp] n (pej, fam) → chiacchiere fpl, sciocchezze fpl


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"As to the great service," said Carton, "I am bound to avow to you, when you speak of it in that way, that it was mere professional claptrap, I don't know that I cared what became of you, when I rendered it.
 
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