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Definitions

claptrap

[klap-trap] / ˈklæpˌtræp /
NOUN
empty talk
Synonyms
Antonyms
STRONG


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And even as I try to dress it up here with some kind of detached, anthropological pseudo-intellectual claptrap, I’m still jumping straight into the muddy pigpile that’s been going on for weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

One doesn’t have to be a fan of Disney to see that as fatuous claptrap.

From Los Angeles Times • May 24, 2023

A public defender in Virginia said, "I have never heard of any of that claptrap in my jurisdiction."

From Salon • Jan. 1, 2023

In a memorable scene, he barges into a lecture on anatomy and exposes the professor’s teachings as claptrap.

From New York Times • May 13, 2022

His eyes were soft and irisless and brown, and suddenly I saw Roskus watching me from behind all his whitefolks’ claptrap of uniforms and politics and Harvard manner, diffident, secret, inarticulate and sad.

From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner




Vocabulary lists containing claptrap