What is "trapeze"

Trapeze \Tra*peze"\, n. [Cf. F. trap[`e]ze.]

1. (Geom.) A trapezium. See Trapezium, 1.

2. A swinging horizontal bar, suspended at each end by a rope; -- used by gymnasts.

swing with a cross-bar, used for feats of strength and agility, 1861, from French trapèze, from Late Latin trapezium (see trapezium), probably because the crossbar, the ropes and the ceiling formed a trapezium.\n\nThe French, to whose powers of invention (so long as you do not insist upon utility) there is no limit, have invented for the world the Trapeze ....

["Chambers's Journal," July 6, 1861]

n. 1 (context archaic English) A trapezium. 2 A swinging horizontal bar, suspended at each end by a rope; — used by gymnasts. vb. To swing on a trapeze

n. a swing used by circus acrobats

Trapeze were an English rock band formed in March 1969, by vocalist John Jones and guitarist/keyboardist Terry Rowley (who named the band), with guitarist Mel Galley, singer/bassist Glenn Hughes, and drummer Dave Holland. The band had a fairly fluid line up, finally dissolving in 1994. Several members went on to join better known bands, including Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, and Uriah Heep.

The core and most familiar line-up of the band was Glenn Hughes, Mel Galley, and Dave Holland. After Glenn Hughes' departure in June 1973, Galley and Holland kept the band together with constantly varying members until 1979, when Holland went on to join Judas Priest. Holland tried to revive the band in 1990, after leaving Priest, but the band finally broke up in 1994. Their first three albums remain their best known and most commercially successful.

Trapeze is the self-titled fifth studio album by English hard rock band Trapeze. Recorded with producer Steve Smith at Island Studios, London, it was released in 1975 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was preceded by the release of one single, a cover version of " On the Sunny Side of the Street", originally recorded by Frank Sinatra.

A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, and may be performed solo, double, triple or as a group act. It is officially the last performance of the circus.

Trapeze is the self-titled debut studio album by English hard rock band Trapeze. Recorded in 1969 at Morgan Studios and Decca Studios, it was produced by The Moody Blues bassist John Lodge and released in 1970 by Threshold Records. The album was preceded by the release of the single "Send Me No More Letters" in 1969.

Trapeze is a 1956 circus film directed by Carol Reed and starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida, making her debut in American films. The film is based on Max Catto's novel The Killing Frost, with the adapted screenplay written by Liam O'Brien.

The film did well at the box office, returning $7.5 million in North American rentals and placing in the top three among the year's top earners.

Sergei Prokofiev's Trapèze Ballet is scored for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass. The ballet, closely related to Prokofiev's Quintet, Op. 39 (1924), contains eight movements (in five parts) and lasts 20–25 minutes. The complete ballet in eight movements was first performed in Gotha, a small German town near Hanover, on 6 November 1925.

In sailing, the trapeze refers to a wire that comes from a point high on the mast, usually where the shrouds are fixed, to a hook on the crew member's harness at approximately waist level. The position when extended on the trapeze is outside the hull, braced against it (or an extension of it outwards) with the soles of the feet, facing the masthead, and clipped on by a hook on the trapeze harness. This gives the crew member more leverage to keep the boat flat by allowing the crew member's centre of gravity to balance the force of the wind in the sails.

An additional benefit is the ability to "walk" along the gunwale to balance the boat's trim fore and aft. This is necessary to prevent racing catamarans such as the Tornado from digging the bow into the water, also called pitchpoling, and causing a nosedive and often a spectacular capsize.

Boats may have only one trapeze, such as the 420, where only the crew uses the trapeze. Boats, such as the 49er, may have trapeze wires for both the skipper and the crew. Trapeze has several colloquial names such as "the wire" or simply "the trap".

When a boat loses power in its sails, and heels to the windward side, the crew on the trapeze may get dipped in the water if they do not react in time.

Some classes allow footloops on the gunwale to allow those on the trapeze to locate their feet with relative security. This helps to prevent the crew from swinging forward, sometimes round the forestay when the boat decelerates suddenly.

A trapeze is a piece of equipment for performing aerial acrobatics.

It may also refer to:

• Trapeze (film), a 1956 movie directed by Carol Reed
• Trapeze (band), a 1970s UK rock band
  • Trapeze (1970 album), the band's debut album
  • Trapeze (1976 album), another eponymous album by the same band
• Trapeze (book), a 2012 novel by Simon Mawer, originally published as The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
• Trapeze, a ballet by Prokofiev
• Trapeze (sailing), a wire on a sailing dinghy allowing members of the crew to lean out of the boat
• Trapeze Software, a Toronto-based company specializing in software relating to public transit and paratransit systems
• Decompression trapeze, a device used in recreational diving
• The Oak Park and River Forest High School newspaper
• Trapeze or Kūchū Buranko, a Japanese short novel and associated works

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (as published in the UK by Little, Brown and Company) or Trapeze (as published in the US by Other Press) is a novel written by Simon Mawer, published in 2012. It is a historical novel about a woman during World War II whose ability to speak French and propensity for risk attracts the attention of a Special Operations Executive and eventually leads her to be an agent operating in occupied Europe before she is even twenty years old. Mawer incorporates both fact and fiction in the telling of her story. The American title was chosen to avoid confusion with the 2010 novel by Heidi W. Durrow.

The book has been widely reviewed in a number of news sources in the UK (including The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph) and USA (including the Washington Post).

In June 2012, Mawer was the guest on a radio broadcast of the Diane Rehm Show, where he talked about his new book.