n.
Pretentious, insincere, or empty language: "I hate ... that air/Of claptrap, which your recent poets prize" (Byron).
[Obsolete claptrap, a theatrical trick to win applause : CLAP1 + TRAP1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
