trepan
/tɹəˈpæn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.14 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To create a large hole by making a narrow groove outlining the shape of the hole and then removing the plug of material remaining by less expensive means.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "As for all other Pretences, they are nothing but Death and Damnation, dreſſed up in Fair VVords and Falſe Shevvs; nothing but Ginns, and Snares, and Trepans for Souls; Contrived by the Devil, and Managed by ſuch as the Devil ſets on VVork."
- "Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to accept this man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as they were then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, […]"
- "[O]ld associates who had once thought him [Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston] a man of dauntless courage and spotless honour, […] now pronounced that he was at best a meanspirited coward, and hinted their suspicions that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan."
- "And haſt thou trepan'd me into a Tabernacle of the Godly? Is this Pious Boarding-houſe a place for me, thou vvicked Varlet?"
- "[H]e hoped he did not intend to make uſe of him to trepan a man to his ruin."
- "O fie! Sir Peter,—vvhat, join in a plot to trepan my brother!"
Etymology
Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trepan, from Latin trepanum, from Ancient Greek τρύπανον (trúpanon, “auger, borer”). Doublet of trephine.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, trepan, trepanum, τρύπανον
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tɹəˈpæn/
- British English: /tɹɪˈpæn/