How to Use trip wire in a Sentence

trip wire

noun
Definition of trip wirenext
Synonyms for trip wirenext
  • One of the bombs involved a trip wire, police have said.
    — Phil Helsel /, NBC News, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Hidden trip wires are another threat that the flames can be used to eliminate.
    — Allison Barrie, Fox News, 23 Mar. 2018
  • Mike Colbach returned on Saturday to get a better look and found the trip wire attached to a beer bottle in a tree.
    — Will Egensteiner, Outside Online, 21 Oct. 2014
  • The fourth one was left on the side of a road, and police believe it was possibly hooked to a trip wire that set it off after two men in their 20s passed by on their bicycles.
    — Breanna Edwards, The Root, 19 Mar. 2018
  • But television sports has far more trip wires than sports journalism.
    — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 13 June 2019
  • Conditt also used a trip wire across a sidewalk to trigger another bomb.
    — Steve Almasy and Keith Allen, CNN, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Some neighbors reported they had been told the explosion was the result of a trip wire, but police would not confirm any details of the blast Sunday night.
    — Jeremy Schwartz, ajc, 19 Mar. 2018
  • As residents of the Texas capitol became focused on packages left on doorsteps, the bomber struck again Sunday with a new method: a trip wire, which injured two people.
    — Elaine Aradillas, PEOPLE.com, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Most of the people who reach out to him are amateur inventors who came up with something innovative, like a rat trip wire.
    — Oliver Whang, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2023
  • Digging in for a fight, the militants laid explosives throughout the center of the city, connecting bombs to the wiring of houses and laying trip wire under carpets.
    — Jane Arraf, Newsweek, 25 Feb. 2016
  • The team charged with the peace negotiations doesn’t want to add a possible trip wire for Mr. Netanyahu into the run-up to elections and could hold off on putting the proposals forward.
    — Dov Lieber, WSJ, 19 Nov. 2018
  • The trigger was a trip wire along a road that investigators said was more sophisticated than the first three attacks.
    — Bart Jansen and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2018
  • As the family makes their way through a deadly silent landscape, Evelyn accidentally sets off a trip wire, rattling a bunch of tin cans as an alarm.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 1 Jan. 2020
  • Alone–style security system, and when Big Man steps on a trip wire, a small windup toy rolls across the floor, posing absolutely no threat to anyone, baby or adult.
    — Oliver Sava, Vulture, 4 June 2021
  • The system uses seismometers and trip wires to detect the roar of an approaching lahar and trigger sirens and phone alerts so residents can evacuate to high ground.
    — The Seattle Times, OregonLive.com, 8 May 2018
  • In the late nineteen-eighties, Mexico used this technology to set up a seismic trip wire between its capital city and the coast, in order to catch offshore tremors.
    — The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2021
  • As far back as the Book of Genesis, when Jacob’s soon-to-be father-in-law tricked him into marrying the wrong daughter, in-laws have been universally acknowledged trip wires.
    — Alessandra Stanley, Town & Country, 19 Oct. 2018
  • Two of Derimov’s men delicately removed and defused a hand grenade that had been attached to a tree with a barely visible trip wire intended to set it off.
    — Marc Santora, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Nov. 2022
  • Unlike the other explosions, which detonated after victims tried to pick up packages left at their homes, this package was left on the side of the road and was possibly triggered by a trip wire, Manley said.
    — James Hohmann, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Some of those who have hit the trip wire are recent college graduates, installed in jobs usually reserved for officials with decades of experience.
    — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 14 May 2018
  • Complete with this trip wire and the device was hidden along a fence in this normally quiet neighborhood meaning it was put there to randomly detonate on whoever reached it first.
    — Fox News, 19 Mar. 2018
  • The explosions have sparked fears of a sophisticated, skilled bomber deploying numerous kinds of devices in a dense city - first package bombs and then one utilizing a trip wire, a different method.
    — Alex Horton, chicagotribune.com, 21 Mar. 2018
  • The qualitative release next week remains a potential tripping wire for large banks that are well-capitalized but have faced rebukes from regulators on other aspects of their operations, including consumer harm.
    — Telis Demos, WSJ, 21 June 2018
  • The yearslong push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York, a proposal that often found its momentum stalled by some political trip wire, received an unexpected boost from Mr. Cuomo’s recent political scandals.
    — New York Times, 25 Mar. 2021
  • The trip wire, authorities said, indicated the attacker was more sophisticated than previously believed.
    — Faith Karimi, CNN, 22 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'trip wire.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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