Meaning of Claptrap | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Empty verbiage or nonsense.
   countable, uncountable
2. A device for producing a clapping sound in theaters.
   countable, historical, uncountable
3. A device or trick to gain applause; a humbug.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Klein diagnoses impressively what hasn’t worked. No more claptrap about fracked gas as a bridge to renewables. Enough already of the international summit meetings that produce sirocco-quality hot air, and nonbinding agreements that bind us all to more emissions.”

“There had been a suggestion that the child should be with her [while she answers the door], but the mother herself had rejected this. "It would be stagey," she had said, "and clap-trap. There is nothing I hate so much as that."”

CEFR level