What it means
A catfish is someone who pretends to be a whole different person online, usually with fake or stolen pics and a made-up life to sell the fantasy. People say it for romance scams, fake dating profiles, or anyone hiding behind a digital costume and wasting everybody's time.
Usage examples
"Spent three months texting a girl from Dallas who turned out to be some dude in Ohio, I got catfished so hard I deleted the app"
"Turned out the match was a catfish using someone else's holiday photos."
"Always video call early so you don't get catfished before the first date."
"Bro was sending gym selfies and talking big, then on FaceTime it was fully a catfish with somebody else's pics."
"She looked way too polished on the app, and yeah, surprise surprise, total catfish energy."
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Where it comes from
The modern slang sense blew up after the 2010 documentary Catfish, then the MTV series that followed it. Both were about online relationships where one person turned out to be lying hard about who they were. After that, catfish stuck as the go-to word for fake online identities.
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