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A pitfall is a problem that is likely to wait for you in a job, a plan, or a way of doing something — often a hidden one, the kind you only see after you have in it. The pitfalls of starting a shop might include taking on too much rent. Long ago it was a real trap: a pit in the ground, covered over, so an animal would fall in. Today we almost always mean the danger in a process, not a hole. You hear it in advice, textbooks, and work talk. Though actually, it is not just any difficulty. A hard exam is not a pitfall; a trick in the wording might be.
陷阱、潛在問題（做事時容易踩到的）
組成pit + fall. First recorded in the 14th century as a pit trap or snare. Fall here is the old word for a trap (Old English fealle), from the same old family as German Falle, “trap.”
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
pitfallnoun/ˈpɪtfɔːl/
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A type of trap consisting of a concealed pit in the ground, into which the victim is supposed to fall and not be able to get out from.
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A potential, unsuspected, hidden problem, hazard, or danger that is easily encountered but not immediately obvious.
- It's usually a simple task, but you should know the pitfalls before you attempt it yourself.
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computingengineeringmathematicsAn antipattern.
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businessminingSubsidence below ground in a mine, which can cause the ground level above to drop.
- This pitfall, beginning in February and finishing in May, resulted in a drop of about 3 ft. in the platform level; during this period it was necessary to level the track three times weekly, and impose a service slack of 15 m.p.h. The subsidence appears now to have finished, and normal speed is once again permitted.
pitfallverb/ˈpɪtfɔːl/
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To trap, snare, or ensnare someone or something.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。