Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) to ensnare, to deceive; thus trappanning n., cheating.

1655		Mercurius Fumigosus 34 17–24 Jan. 270: He [...] so trappan’d his honest Wife, and her supposed Cosin. Which now must suffer for their fun, / For playing false at In and In.
1660		Wandring Whore III 7: Mall. Tremain [...] lay in New-gate for picking of pockets, and Trappanning of Merchants.
a.1661		‘A Rump serv’d in with a Grand Sallet’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) ii 122: These Hypocrites publisht a late Exhortation, / To trepan and beggar this City and Nation.
1664		W. Killigrew Pandora Act V: I would not be Treypand into a Marriage I am so much averse to.
1668		‘P.R.’ Whores Dialogue title: The Cheats, Abuses and Trapaning Trades which they drive; their ways to entice young Cullies.
1672		Wycherley Love in a Wood IV i: You cheated, trappand, rob’d me of the five hundred pound.
1678		Narrative of Bloody Murder of Sir. E. Godfrey 12 Oct. 1: The above-named persons Trepan’d Sir Edmondbury into Somerset-house.
a.1687		‘State Empirick’ in N. Thompson Choice Collection of 120 Loyal Songs 27: As soon as 'twas Swallow'd, the Patient began / To Stare and to Talk like a Lunatick Man, / Of Pistols and Daggers, to Kill and Trapan.
1697		J. Dunton Night-Walker Jan. 20: An Account how he was Trapan’d and Pox’d, by a Fleet-Street Jilt.
1698		N. Ward ‘Sot’s Paradise’ in Writings (1704) 27: I’d been Trapan’d, and in a Mouse-Trap caught.
a.1704		N. Ward ‘The Rise and Fall of Madam Coming-Sir’ in Writings (1704) 400: She having Trapan’d several Fresh Country Lasses into her Service.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 50: In Wedlocks Trappan, / By taking occasion, / To ease our wrong’d Passion, / As well as we can.
1722		Defoe Hist. of Colonel Jack (1723) 188: You Wrote him an Account where you was, and by what wicked Arts you were Trapann’d.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: Trapan’d, c. Sharpt, ensnar’d.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 122: Both did but in a different Shape, trapan, / One hang’d his Master, th’other hang’d his Man.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1741		Richardson Memoirs of the Life of Lady H 36: She was sharp enough to trepan you to marry her.
1755		The Tricks of the Town Laid Open (4 edn) 55: As a Gentleman and a Stranger, you’re most in Danger to be trapann’d.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 217: I han’t lived so long in Yorkshire to be trepanned by such vermin as you.
1771		R. King New London Spy 56: When the bait has succeeded, and the cull is trepanned, a billet is flipped into his hand.
c.1785		‘The Connaughtman’s Visit to dublin’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 390: ‘Pleash your honour, I’m a poor Conought-man, / Before in my life I was never trepan’.
1788		‘Fitzgerald’s Tragedy’ Songs (publ. Newry) 5: Likewise my servant man he did my life trapan, / Being a traitor that never was trusty.
c.1790		‘The Connaughtman’s Visit to Dublin’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 4: Before in my life I was never trepan.
1792		New Cheats of London Exposed 10: Thus the poor, harmless honest man is trepanned [...] into a state of slavery.
1803		R. Anderson ‘Watty’ Cumberland Ballads (1805) 55: They said Carel lasses wad Watty trapan.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 261: To think how I was trapanned.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 167: Egad! [...] I just saved your Cousin from being trepanned, and sent for a soldier.
c.1830		‘Birmingham Boy in London’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 59: Then upstept a lady half drunk in the street / Thinking of me to trepan sir.
1841		‘Don Giovanni or, The Man Vot Claps ’Em On The Peg’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 28: And under her window he went to trepan her, / With his weedle tweedle, while at piddle.
a.1860		‘The Oyster Man’ in Henderson Victorian Street Ballads (1937) 68: You’ve heard of a Dandy dog’s meat blade / who did diddle an Old Maid, / And who did her heart trepan.
1898		Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper 27 Nov. 16/1: Tom is my brother and I’ll not take part in any scheme to trepan him into a marriage with a girl old enough to be his mother.