Trees that have fallen naturally in a forest; also a type of trap for catching large animals.
Compound of 'dead' + 'fall.' The forestry sense emerged from literal observation (dead trees that fall). The trap sense developed from the mechanism—a deadfall trap uses a heavy object (often a fallen tree or log) that falls to trap an animal beneath it.
A deadfall trap is brilliantly simple: a heavy weight suspended over bait that falls when disturbed—basically controlled gravity as a weapon. Native Americans and frontiersmen used physics without calculus to solve survival problems.
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