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fish1

Syllabification: (fish)
Pronunciation: /fiSH/

Translate fish | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of fish

noun (plural same or fishes)

  • a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate animal with gills and fins and living wholly in water:the sea is thick with fish
  • the flesh of fish as food:hot crab appetizers stuffed with fish
  • (the Fish or Fishes) the zodiacal sign or constellation Pisces.
  • used in names of invertebrate animals living wholly in water, e.g., cuttlefish, shellfish, jellyfish.
  • [with adjective] informal a person who is strange in a specified way:he is generally thought to be a bit of a cold fish
  • informal a torpedo.

verb

[no object]
  • catch or try to catch fish, typically by using a net or hook and line:he was fishing for bluefish I’ve told the girls we’ve gone fishing
  • [with object] catch or try to catch fish in (a particular body of water):they did fish the mountain streams when game grew scarce
  • search, typically by groping or feeling for something concealed:he fished for his registration certificate and held it up to the policeman’s flashlight
  • try subtly or deviously to elicit a response or some information from someone:I was not fishing for compliments
  • [with object] (fish something out) pull or take something out of water or a container:the body of a woman had been fished out of the river

Phrases

a big fish

an important or influential person:he became a big fish in the world of politics

a big fish in a small (or little) pond

a person seen as important and influential only within the limited scope of a small organization or group.

drink like a fish

drink excessive amounts of alcohol.

fish or cut bait

see bait.

a fish out of water

a person in a completely unsuitable environment or situation.

fished out

depleted of fish:the grayling here have hardly been fished out

have other (or bigger) fish to fry

have other (or more important) matters to attend to.

like shooting fish in a barrel

extremely easy:picking cultivated berries is like shooting fish in a barrel

neither fish nor fowl (nor good red herring)

of indefinite character and difficult to identify or classify.

there are plenty more fish in the sea

used to console someone whose romantic relationship has ended by pointing out that there are many other people with whom they may have a successful relationship in the future.

Derivatives

fishlike

adjective

Origin:

Old English fisc (as a noun denoting any animal living exclusively in water), fiscian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vis, vissen and German Fisch, fischen

The normal plural of fish is fish (a shoal of fish; he caught two huge fish). The older form fishes is still used, but almost exclusively when referring to different kinds of fish (freshwater fishes of the Great Lakes).

fish in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of fish in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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