catch
n. countablen. a hidden problem or tricky part of a deal or situation that seems good at first. You might ask 'What's the catch?' when an offer seems too good to be true.
n. a concealed problem, disadvantage, or condition in an apparently attractive offer or situation. This sense is typically used in informal contexts.
The offer sounds great, but what's the catch?
The free trial is tempting, but the catch is you must provide your credit card details.
He accepted the promotion, only later discovering the catch: the new role came with significantly longer hours and no additional pay for the first six months.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Indo-European *kaptós Proto-Italic *kaptos Vulgar Latin captus Proto-Indo-European *-yetider. Vulgar Latin -io Vulgar Latin *captiāre Old French chacierbor. Anglo-Norman cachierbor. Middle English cacchen English catch From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Via PIE cognate with have. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan. The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.