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roach motel

noun

Etymology

The meaning "low-priced motel" is because such a place might be expected to be infested with roaches. The meaning "something easy to enter, difficult to leave" is from American roach-bait brand Roach Motel, advertised with the slogan "Roaches check in, but they don't check out!"

Definitions

  1. A low-priced motel in a state of disrepair.

  2. Something that is easy to enter, but is difficult or costly to leave.

    • 8.3.1 The Importance of Easy Access: Avoid the “Roach Motel!” In Chapter 6, we discussed what a “roach motel” was. You can get data into a “roach motel”, but you can't easily get it out.
    • Don't hope for a better shake from Apple, either. Apple's longstanding love-affair with proprietary formats and lock-ins will very likely make the iPad every inch the roach motel that the Kindle is

  3. A cockroach trap.

The neighborhood

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No curated loop yet for roach motel. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA