finger trap
Tightens when pulled
A finger trap is a woven tube, typically of bamboo or paper, that tightens when pulled from both ends—the harder you pull, the tighter it grips.
Children stick a finger in each end and discover they're stuck until they push inward instead of pulling.
The mechanism makes it a metaphor for problems that worsen when you fight them directly: The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got—a real finger trap.
- ChineseOf that Asian nation
- puzzleChallenge testing ingenuity
- bambooTall woody grass
- wovenInterlaced on loom
- stuckUnable to move
pull · tug · push together · novelty · toy · party favor · kids party · gag · escape · tighten · cylinder · weave · prank · party · souvenir · gift shop · handcuffs · struggle
- hand gamesrock paper scissors, cat's cradle, thumb war, thumb wrestling, patty cake
- desk toysNewton's cradle, fidget spinner, stress ball, fidget cube, kinetic sand
- folk toyskendama, folk toys, nesting dolls, dreidel, handcrafted toys
- string figurescat's cradle, Jacob's ladder, cup and saucer, witch's broom, spider web
finger traprelease mechanism
Device that unlocks restraint
escape hatch · finger splint · key · lock pick · ejector
finger trapjigsaw puzzle
Segmented image to reassemble
combination lock · logic puzzle · crossword puzzle · maze · riddle
finger, trap, fingers, fingered, fingering, fingerlike, fingerless, traps, trapped