Edit page | Page history | Printable version

trapdoor

1. A lifting or sliding door covering an opening in a roof or floor.

2. (Science: chemical) A door in a level for regulating the ventilating current; called also weather door.

(Science: zoology) Trapdoor spider, any one of several species of large spiders which make a nest consisting of a vertical hole in the earth, lined with a hinged lid, like a trapdoor. most of the species belong to the genus Cteniza, as the California species (C. Californica).