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fish1

Pronunciation: /fɪʃ/
Translate fish | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of fish

noun (plural same or fishes)

  • 1a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate animal with gills and fins living wholly in water:the huge lakes are now devoid of fish
  • [mass noun] the flesh of fish as food: a dinner of meat, dried fish, and bread
  • (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.
  • informal a torpedo.
  • 2 [with adjective] British informal a person who is strange in a specified way:he is generally thought to be a bit of a cold fish

verb

[no object]
  • 1catch or try to catch fish, typically by using a net or hook and line:he was fishing for pike I’ve told the girls we’ve gone fishing
  • [with object] catch or try to catch fish in (a particular body of water):many of the lochs we used to fish are now affected by forestry
  • 2search by groping or feeling for something concealed:he fished for his registration certificate and held it up to the policeman’s torch
  • 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 receptacle:the body of a woman had been fished out of the river

Phrases

all's fish that comes to the net

proverb you can or should take advantage of anything that comes your way.

a big fish

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

a big fish in a small pond

a person who is important only within the limited scope of a small field or group.

drink like a fish

drink excessive amounts of alcohol: he stayed sober—except on Sundays when he would lock himself away and drink like a fish

a fish out of water

a person in a completely unsuitable environment or situation: senior bankers are fish out of water when it comes to international lending

have other (or bigger) fish to fry

have other (or more important) matters to attend to: the currency markets have had other fish to fry, with all attention focused on the dollar and yen

like shooting fish in a barrel

very 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

fishable

adjective

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, when referring to different kinds of fish (freshwater fishes of the British Isles).

fish in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of fish in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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