claptrap n : pompous or pretentious talk or writing [syn: bombast, fustian, rant, blah]

English

Alternative spellings

• clap trap
• clap-trap

Etymology

Theater slang, c. 1730, referring to theatrical devices or gags used to incite applause.

Noun

1. empty verbiage or nonsense.

Synonyms

• See

Translations

absurdity, amphigory, argument, argument by analogy, argumentum ad baculum, argumentum ad captandum, argumentum ad hominem, babble, babblement, bad case, balderdash, balls, baloney, begging the question, bibble-babble, blabber, blague, blather, bombast, bosh, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, circular argument, crap, crowd-pleasing argument, double-talk, drivel, drool, empty words, eyewash, fallacy, fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, flam, flapdoodle, flimflam, flummery, folderol, formal fallacy, fudge, fustian, gabble, galimatias, gammon, gibber, gibberish, gibble-gabble, gobbledygook, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hoke, hokum, hooey, humbug, humbuggery, hysteron proteron, insincere argument, jabber, jargon, jiggery-pokery, logical fallacy, malarkey, material fallacy, mere rhetoric, moonshine, mumbo jumbo, narrishkeit, niaiserie, non sequitur, nonsense, pack of nonsense, palaver, paralogism, petitio principii, philosophism, prate, prattle, pseudosyllogism, rant, rigamarole, rigmarole, rodomontade, rubbish, skimble-skamble, solecism, sophism, sophistry, stuff and nonsense, stultiloquence, trash, trumpery, twaddle, twattle, twiddle-twaddle, vaporing, verbal fallacy, waffling, weak point