Animal taps trap (5)
I believe the answer is:
catch
'trap' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'animal taps' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'cat' (cats are animals).
'taps' becomes 'ch' (cold and hot taps).
'cat'+'ch'='CATCH'
(Other definitions for catch that I've seen before include "secure" , "Concealed difficulty" , "Capture; hidden problem" , "Accurately detect" , "Disadvantage that's hidden" .)