> Because it's a common phrase?

I know it's a common phrase (albeit sa uniquely american one? Never heard this from e.g. Brits). I'm asking how it came to be that way when it seemingly makes no sense.

> Same as "get carded"?

No, because "being carded" (if I understand correctly) is something that does in fact happen to you. In trespassing, you are the one doing the trespassing (to something/someone else). That's why I find it so weird that Americans turn the subject into object in the sentence.

> English is flexible; almost any combination of words can start to have meaning

Sure. But taking a perfectly fine sentence and turning the subject into an object (when the physical reality is unchanged) seems strange, and warrants curiosity.

Trespassing someone (transitive) is different from trespassing against someone (intransitive). It’s not unusual for a verb to mean something different when used transitively versus when used intransitively. To “trespass” someone, when used transitively, means to ban that someone from a property. Wiktionary provides examples of “trespass” used with this meaning as early as 1946.

> albeit sa uniquely american one? Never heard this from e.g. Brits

According to this lexicography blog post, datasets reveal the transitive definition to be most common in New Zealand. https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/trespassers-wi...

Here are some examples of it being used on a NZ website: https://www.police.govt.nz/use-105/trespass