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noun, plural (especially collectively) fish, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) fish·es.

any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.

(loosely) any of various aquatic animals.

the flesh of fishes used as food.

Fishes, Astronomy, Astrology. the constellation or sign of Pisces.

Informal. a person: an odd fish; a poor fish.

a long strip of wood, iron, etc., used to strengthen a mast, joint, etc.

Cards Slang. an incompetent player whose incompetence can be exploited.

Slang. a dollar: He sold the car for 500 fish.

Slang.

  1. a new prison inmate.
  2. a high school or college freshman; frosh.

verb (used with object)

to catch or attempt to catch (any species of fish or the like).

to try to catch fish in (a stream, lake, etc.): Let’s fish the creek.

to draw, as by fishing (often followed by up or out): He fished a coin out of his pocket for the boy.

to search through, as by fishing.

Nautical.

  1. to secure (an anchor) by raising the flukes.
  2. to reinforce (a mast or other spar) by fastening a spar, batten, metal bar, or the like, lengthwise over a weak place.

verb (used without object)

to catch or attempt to catch fish, as by angling or drawing a net.

to search carefully: He fished through all his pockets but his wallet was gone.

to seek to obtain something indirectly or by artifice: to fish for compliments; to fish for information.

to search for or attempt to catch onto something under water, in mud, etc., by the use of a dredge, rake, hook, or the like.

to attempt to recover detached tools or other loose objects from an oil or gas well.

Verb Phrases

fish out, to deplete (a lake, stream, etc.) of fish by fishing.

QUIZ

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Which sentence is correct?

Idioms about fish

    drink like a fish, to drink alcoholic beverages to excess: Nobody invites him out because he drinks like a fish.

    fish in troubled waters, to take advantage of troubled or uncertain conditions for personal profit.

    fish or cut bait, to choose a definite course of action, especially to decide whether to participate in or retreat from an activity.

    fish out of water, a person out of their proper or accustomed environment: He felt like a fish out of water in an academic atmosphere.

    neither fish nor fowl, having no specific character or conviction; neither one nor the other.

    other fish to fry, other matters requiring attention: When it was time to act, they had other fish to fry.

Origin of fish

First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English fis(c)h, fyssh, Old English fisc; cognate with Dutch vis, German Fisch, Old Norse fiskr,Gothic fisks; akin to Latin piscis, Irish iasc; (verb) Middle English fishen, Old English fiscian, cognate with Dutch visschen, German fischen, Old Norse fiska, Gothic fiskôn

OTHER WORDS FROM fish

fish·less, adjectivefish·like, adjectiveout·fish, verb (used with object)un·fished, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH fish

fiche, fish

Words nearby fish

fiscal year, Fischer, Fischer-Dieskau, Fischer-Tropsch process, Fischer von Erlach, fish, fishable, fish and brewis, fish and chips, fish-and-chip shop, fish-bellied

Other definitions for fish (2 of 2)

noun

Hamilton, 1808–93, U.S. statesman: secretary of state 1869–77.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

ABOUT THIS WORD

What else does fish mean?

Fish, appearing especially in the phrase fresh fish, is prison slang for new, first-time inmates, usually considered naive and vulnerable.

Fish, often appearing in the form of fishy or the phrase serving fish, is also slang in drag culture for a very feminine drag queen.

Content warning: this article contains references to sexual and sexist content.

Where does fish come from?

Fish has been recorded as prison slang for new inmates since the 1870s. The term apparently likens new prisoners to fish fresh out of the water. One theory about the slang’s origin claims that inmates were issued uniforms with their inmate numbers stamped with an ink that smelled fishy when wet.

Fish for new inmates shouldn’t be confused with another prison slang term, fishing. This refers to using a string to pass contraband items between cells in a manner similar to casting a fishing line.

Security update. Spot check by prison security staff found this. Did you spot it? Blue in color cable placed over the wall. Drops down into inmate holding area and being used as a ‘fishing line’ to move contraband. Corrective action taken. #safeprisons pic.twitter.com/islbBC3qfE

— Seychelles Prison Service (@SeychellePrison) October 29, 2018

Fish is also slang in the drag community. Alluding to popular beliefs about female genitalia, fish, here, refers to a drag queen who closely resembles a woman. Referring to a drag queen as fishy, or saying they are serving fish, is considered complimentary within the drag community, but keep in mind that such a description for women and their bodies is generally extremely offensive.

How is fish used in real life?

Both prisoners and prison staff may use fish to belittle new, first-time inmates. It has appeared in popular media, including the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, as well as in a 2005 episode of the TV show Prison Break, which contains the fan favorite line “Welcome to Prisneyland, fish.”

Once again, in drag culture, fish/fishy/serving fish are taken as compliments, but, elsewhere, likening female genitalia to a fish is offensive.

More examples of fish:

“Walking a dog down the streets of LA is like walking the new fish down a crowded row of prison cells in a movie.”
—@shelbyfero, October 2018

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.

Words related to fish

angle, bait, bob, cast, chum, extract, extricate, find, net, produce, seine, trawl, troll, pull out

How to use fish in a sentence

  • On March 20, 2019, fish caught in Ohio’s Cuyahoga River were declared safe to eat by federal environmental regulators.

  • The new work provides important context for data being collected on fish stocks.

  • Sims and Berni wonder how these ideas might be explored in vertebrates like mice and zebra fish.

  • For example, fishes who start living and evolving in unlit caves often lose their eyes, because the costs of developing them outweigh their advantages.

  • This makes the online world an exceptionally volatile environment, where big fishes swallow the small ones.

  • When Chérif got out of prison, he worked at the fish counter of a supermarket.

  • “The government just wanted to catch the big fish [in the Juarez cartel] and they ignored everything in between,” Lozoya said.

  • Kocurek documented the scene with notes and diagrams, and called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

  • A U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer corroborated another account.

  • A Fish and Wildlife special agent collected the bodies of two birds at the site, a redhead duck and a mourning dove.

  • He must be The saltest fish that swims the sea.And, oh!He has a secret woe!

  • He looked up from his fish and replied, somewhat cuttingly, «By contesting a borough and getting elected.»

  • Smoking, the angry and fuming king protests, had made our manners as rude as those of the fish-wives of Dieppe.

  • But what if I catch the fish by using a hired boat and a hired net, or by buying worms as bait from some one who has dug them?

  • The Taube has been bothering us again, but wound up its manœuvres very decently by killing some fish for our dinner.

British Dictionary definitions for fish (1 of 2)

noun plural fish or fishes

  1. any of a large group of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates having jaws, gills, and usually fins and a skin covered in scales: includes the sharks and rays (class Chondrichthyes : cartilaginous fishes) and the teleosts, lungfish, etc (class Osteichthyes : bony fishes)
  2. (in combination)fishpond Related adjectives: ichthyic, ichthyoid, piscine

any of various similar but jawless vertebrates, such as the hagfish and lamprey

(not in technical use) any of various aquatic invertebrates, such as the cuttlefish, jellyfish, and crayfish

the flesh of fish used as food

informal a person of little emotion or intelligencea poor fish

a fine kettle of fish an awkward situation; mess

drink like a fish to drink (esp alcohol) to excess

have other fish to fry to have other activities to do, esp more important ones

like a fish out of water out of one’s usual place

make fish of one and flesh of another Irish to discriminate unfairly between people

neither fish, flesh, nor fowl neither this nor that

verb

(intr) to attempt to catch fish, as with a line and hook or with nets, traps, etc

(tr) to fish in (a particular area of water)

to search (a body of water) for something or to search for something, esp in a body of water

(intr foll by for) to seek something indirectlyto fish for compliments

Derived forms of fish

fishable, adjectivefishlike, adjective

Word Origin for fish

Old English fisc; related to Old Norse fiskr, Gothic fiscs, Russian piskar, Latin piscis

British Dictionary definitions for fish (2 of 2)

n acronym for

fluorescence in situ hybridization, a technique for detecting and locating gene mutations and chromosome abnormalities

Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for fish

Plural fish fishes

Any of numerous cold-blooded vertebrate animals that live in water. Fish have gills for obtaining oxygen, a lateral line for sensing pressure changes in the water, and a vertical tail. Most fish are covered with scales and have limbs in the form of fins. Fish were once classified together as a single group, but are now known to compose numerous evolutionarily distinct classes, including the bony fish, cartilaginous fish, jawless fish, lobe-finned fish, and placoderms.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with fish

In addition to the idioms beginning with fish

  • fish for
  • fishing expedition
  • fish in troubled waters
  • fish or cut bait
  • fish out
  • fish out of water, a
  • fish story

also see:

  • big fish in a small pond
  • cold fish
  • drink like a fish
  • goldfish bowl
  • kettle of fish
  • like shooting fish in a barrel
  • neither fish nor fowl
  • not the only fish in the sea
  • other fish to fry
  • smell fishy

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Источник

If you enjoy being out on the water, you might like to try catching some fish. Or is that “fishes? Although both are proper ways to spell the plural form of fish, there are rules about how to use them as both a noun and a verb. 

The word fish can describe an animal species, but also represents an action. Both fish and fishes are appropriate to use in both noun and verb form, but they have some specific rules. Let’s look at what this means and how fish and fishes should be used. 

What is the Plural of Fish in English?

Fish can be a plural form and singular form and is used when referring to a single group or collection of a specific species of fish. Fishes is a more scientific use when referring to types of fish in a group or collection. You can also conjugate fish to fishes when used as a verb. 

When to Use Fish

When used as a noun, fish describes as singular fish or multiple fish. It is a common, well-recognized word and does not require the addition of an “s” to make it plural. 

Use fish to describe one fish, a school of fish, or a specific fish species. For example:

  • The fish in Lake Ignace were not biting over the weekend.
  • We saw three Manta-Ray fish during our glass bottom ocean cruise.
  • My fish, Bob, was all alone in the fishbowl before I bought him a snail. 

As a verb, use fish to describe the action of catching or trying to catch a fish. It conjugates as a regular verb. For example:

  • I love to go fishing with my father. 
  • Every chance I get, I fish with my group of friends from High School. 
  • I fished that pond every day after school for a year. 

When to Use Fishes

As a noun, fishes is a scientific term that describes more than one species of fish in a group. Fish can be used in its stead, but fishes helps you recognize there is more than one type of fish being referred to. For example:

  • The biologist was studying the diversity of the fishes in the isolated mountain lake. 
  • We saw 15 different types of fishes on our trip. 

As a verb, fishes is the simple present conjugation of the word. For example:

  • He fishes with a unique cast that allows the fly to hover just above the water’s surface.
  • She fishes with her children every chance she gets. 

How to Use Fish in a Sentence

These fish emit distress signals that are picked up on by the mulloway.  [Fishing World]

The fish are then sold as salted dry or canned. [Food Science, Sari Edelstein]

No fish were registered on Upriver Lakes, where the season has now closed after the 90 percent harvest cap was reached on Sunday. [Fon du Lac Reporter]

How to Use Fishes in a Sentence

Those most in jeopardy were the smaller fishes with specialized eating and sheltering habits. [U.S. News & World Report]

Swim with the fishes at Factory Obscura’s latest art installation. [News 9]

Let’s Review

Fish and fishes are correct spellings and serve as a noun in both singular and plural forms or as a verb. Fish is an acceptable use to describe a single fish or any group of fish. Fishes is used to describe multiple species of fish collectively and is more scientific. 

As a verb, fish describes the action of fishing, and fishes is the simple present tense of the word. 

Источник

рыба, рыбная ловля, крабы, рыбный, ловить рыбу, рыбачить

существительное ↓

- (часто без измен.) рыба

fresh-water fish — пресноводная /речная/ рыба 
salt-water fish — морская рыба 
young fish — мальки, молодь 
dried fish — вяленая /сушёная/ рыба 
to catch ten fishes [a lot of fish] — поймать десять рыб [много рыбы] 

- рыба, рыбные блюда

fish soup — рыбный суп, уха 
to eat fish on Fridays — по пятницам есть рыбу 
fish and chips — рыба с жареной картошкой 

- разг. крабы, устрицы и т. п.
- разг. рыбная ловля

fish stakes — сети на кольях, рыбный закол 

- (Fishes) Рыбы (созвездие и знак зодиака)

ещё 7 вариантов

глагол ↓

- ловить, удить рыбу

to fish and hunt — быть рыболовом и охотником 

- использовать для рыбной ловли

to fish a stream [a lake] — ловить рыбу в ручье [в озере] 
the men who fish the waters — люди, занимающиеся рыболовством в этих водах 

- быть пригодным для рыбной ловли

the pond fishes well — в этом пруду хорошо ловится рыба 

- искать (в воде)

to fish for pearls — искать жемчуг 

- разг. стараться получить

to fish for information — добывать сведения /информацию/ 
to fish for compliments [for an invitation] — напрашиваться на комплименты [на приглашение] 

ещё 6 вариантов

Мои примеры

Словосочетания

a great quantity of fish — большое количество рыбы  
a catch of about 20 fish — улов штук в двадцать рыб  
a pond full of silvery fish — водоём, полный серебристой рыбы  
splat fish over an open fire — распластать рыбу над открытым огнём  
bony piece of fish — костлявый кусок рыбы  
to catch a fish — поймать рыбу  
fish chowder — рыбный суп  
baked fish — печёная рыба  
fresh fish — свежая рыба  
frozen fish — мороженая рыба  
to catch (a) fish — ловить рыбу  
to fish a stream — ловить рыбу в ручье  

Примеры с переводом

Did you catch any fish? 

Ты что-нибудь поймал? (о рыбалке)

He hooked a large fish. 

Он поймал крупную рыбу.

I like to go fishing on weekends 

Я люблю ходить на рыбалку по выходным.

Does Rob eat fish? 

Роб еcт рыбу?

Fish bite at bait. 

Рыба клюёт на приманку.

Chris fished in his pocket for a coin. 

Крис выудил (достал) из кармана монету.

Dad really loves to fish. 

Папа просто обожает рыбачить.

ещё 23 примера свернуть

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

They are railing for fresh fish  

They caught fish and snared seabirds.  

We’re having fish for dinner tonight.  

Для того чтобы добавить вариант перевода, кликните по иконке ☰, напротив примера.

Фразовые глаголы

fish out — вылавливать, выплывать, выуживать, выпытывать, доставать, вытаскивать
fish up — вытаскивать

Возможные однокоренные слова

fisher  — рыбак, рыболов, ловец
fishily  — подозрительно, сомнительно
fishing  — рыбалка, рыбная ловля, тоня, рыбные места, рыболовный, рыбацкий, рыболовецкий
fishable  — пригодный для рыбной ловли, доступный для отлова
overfish  — истощать рыбные запасы

Формы слова

verb
I/you/we/they: fish
he/she/it: fishes
ing ф. (present participle): fishing
2-я ф. (past tense): fished
3-я ф. (past participle): fished

noun
ед. ч.(singular): fish
мн. ч.(plural): fish or fishes

Источник

Recent Examples on the Web



Animal processing plants and petroleum refiners are the largest sources of nitrate compounds, which also spur toxic algae blooms in lakes, rivers and oceans that can kill fish and other animals.


—Camille Fine, USA TODAY, 24 Mar. 2023




Conservation officers, also known as fish and game wardens, patrol the lands and waters of the state, enforcing the laws, educating the public, conducting wildlife surveys, and more.


—Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 23 Mar. 2023




Lush cedars and eucalyptus sway above us lazily, while water burbles from the mouths of fish and ancient Roman gods.


—Hazlitt, 22 Mar. 2023




The free-to-visit Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo Hotel contains four acres of streams, waterfalls, exotic birds, fish and turtles.


—Tamara Gane, Chron, 21 Mar. 2023




Some of the tips offered to Fortune readers: Fill about two-thirds of your plate with fruits and veggies, and the remainder with healthy proteins like fish and poultry, Hawk advises.


—Erin Prater, Fortune Well, 20 Mar. 2023




At the hour of the equinox, families gather around the haftsin and say a prayer for the coming year, then share a feast, commonly white fish and herbed rice.


—Iman Hariri-kia, Harper’s BAZAAR, 20 Mar. 2023




Birmingham, meanwhile, was ranked 181 in the community ranking, 108 in food and drinks, 94 in culture enrichment, the number of fish and chips vendors; 87th in the number of St. Patrick’s Day events; 178 in the number for organizations.


—Tinasha Lewis, al, 17 Mar. 2023




Weekend treats include fish and chips on a Friday night and a roast dinner on a Sunday afternoon.


—Maureen O’hare, CNN, 17 Mar. 2023



At lunch, pelicans, herons and other feathery creatures fish nearby and soak up the sun on the piers.


—Robyn George, USA TODAY, 22 Mar. 2023




From there, fish all morning in the stocked pond, start up the smoker for a barbecue later or swim laps in the ozone pool.


—Dallas News, 5 Mar. 2023




Related lawsuits brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Puyallup Tribe, which has treaty rights to fish in the river, are set to go to trial in the fall.


—Gene Johnson, ajc, 27 Feb. 2023




Many local residents fish and grow corn, cassava and cocoa, but mostly for their own use.


—Manuela Andreoni Erin Schaff, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2023




For now, crab fishers are allowed to fish with half their usual number of pots in an effort to protect wildlife from entanglements in gear, as endangered humpback whales continue to be spotted by observers in crab fishing zones.


—Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Dec. 2022




Signature dishes include shrimp and fish pasta, Cajun Atlantic Salmon, and barracuda.


—Victoria M. Walker, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Feb. 2023




There are also veggie subs, salads, burgers, and chicken and fish sandwiches.


—Lois K. Solomon, Sun Sentinel, 16 Feb. 2023




The May Day Park closure means that Ken Brooks, 38, of Daphne, will need to find somewhere else to fish.


—al, 10 Feb. 2023


See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘fish.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Источник

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: fĭsh, IPA(key): /fɪʃ/
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /fɘʃ/
  • Homophones: phish, ghoti
  • Rhymes: -ɪʃ

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ (“fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *fisk, from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz (“fish”) (compare West Frisian fisk, Dutch vis, German Fisch, Danish fisk, Norwegian fisk, Swedish fisk, Icelandic fiskur), from Proto-Indo-European *peysḱ- (“fish”) (compare Irish iasc, Latin piscis).

Noun[edit]

fish (countable and uncountable, plural fish or fishes)

  1. (countable) A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.

    Salmon is a fish.

    The fishmonger sells fishes from all over the world.

    Ichthyologists study the fish of the world.

    We have many fish in our aquarium.

  2. (archaic or loosely) Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water.

    • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature, volume IV:

      The whale, the limpet, the tortoise and the oyster… as men have been willing to give them all the name of fishes, it is wisest for us to conform.

    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

      Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.

  3. (Newfoundland) Cod; codfish.
  4. (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.

    • 2012 March, “Flexing your brain”, in Consumer Reports on Health, volume 24, number 3, page 9:

      Include low-mercury fish in your diet (such as salmon) and eat at least five servings a day of fruit and vegetables, especially dark leafy greens, broccoli, and cauliflower. Avoid saturated and trans fats, which may hasten brain aging.

    The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.

    Though Lena is a vegetarian, she doesn’t have any problem with eating fish.

  5. (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain cards in pairs or sets of four (depending on the variation), by asking the other players for cards of a particular rank.
  6. (uncountable, derogatory, slang) A woman.[1]
  7. (countable, slang) An easy victim for swindling.
  8. (countable, poker slang) A bad poker player. Compare shark (a good poker player).
  9. (countable, nautical) A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.
  10. (nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.
  11. (countable, nautical, military, slang) A torpedo (self-propelled explosive device).
    • 1977, Richard O’Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books (2003), page 344:
      The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck.
    • 1999, John Winton, The Submariners: Life in British Submarines 1901-1999 (page 114)
      As we came off patrol we had some torpedoes fired at us by an enemy submarine but we dived out of the way. About April 10 we fired our fish in two salvoes at a convoy.
  12. (zoology) A paraphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:
    1. Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebrae)
    2. Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)
    3. Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda))
      1. Class Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays
      2. Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fish.
  13. (cartomancy) The thirty-fourth Lenormand card.
  14. (prison slang) A new (usually vulnerable) prisoner.
  15. (Jamaica, offensive, derogatory) A male homosexual; a gay man.

    • 2007, “Touch The Road”, in Gangsta for Life: The Symphony of David Brooks, performed by Mavado (singer):

      Him father is a fish so mi know say it’s sprat dat

      His father is a homosexual, so I know that he is too.
Usage notes[edit]

The collective plural of fish is normally fish in the UK, except in archaic texts where fishes may be encountered; in the US, fishes is encountered as well, but much less commonly. When referring to two or more kinds of fish, the plural is fishes.

Synonyms[edit]
  • (potential swindling victim): mark
  • (card game): Go Fish
  • (bad poker player): donkey, donk
Hyponyms[edit]
  • (aquatic cold-blooded vertabrae with gills): Cephalaspidomorphi, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes
  • (food): seafood
  • abyssal fish
  • alligator fish
  • angel fish
  • angler fish
  • auger-fish
  • backspot flying fish
  • basa fish
  • blowfish, blow fish
  • bluefish
  • bony fish
  • buffalo fish
  • butterfly fish
  • chalk fish
  • cleaner fish
  • clown fish
  • coarse fish
  • cucumber fish
  • Darwin fish
  • date fish
  • discus fish
  • dogfish
  • dolphin fish
  • dragonfish
  • elephantnose fish
  • ex-lax fish
  • feeder fish
  • fighting fish
  • flashlight fish
  • flying fish
  • food fish
  • foul fish
  • four-eyed fish
  • game fish
  • gefilte fish, gefullte fish, gefulte fish, gefüllte fish, gefülte fish
  • goatfish
  • goldfish
  • headlight fish
  • Jesus fish
  • jewfish, jew-fish
  • labyrinth fish
  • lantern fish
  • line fish
  • lion fish
  • lumpfish
  • mandarin fish
  • Margate fish
  • Mexican walking fish
  • midshipman fish
  • millions fish
  • neon fish
  • nettle-fish
  • nigger-fish
  • onion fish
  • peacock fish
  • penis fish
  • Peters’s elephantnose fish
  • pilot fish
  • pinecone fish
  • pleco fish
  • pompadour fish
  • porcupine fish
  • rapier-fish
  • rifle fish
  • rock-fish
  • rose fish
  • rough fish
  • royal fish
  • sabertooth fish
  • sailfish
  • samson fish
  • sargassum fish
  • saucepan fish
  • sea fish
  • Siamese fighting fish
  • singing fish
  • sport fish
  • squaw fish
  • St. Peter’s fish
  • sucking-fish
  • Suleah fish
  • surgeonfish
  • tamarind fish
  • trash fish
  • tropical fish
  • tuna fish
  • urchin fish
  • walking fish
  • wet fish
  • white-fish
  • wolf-fish
  • zebra fish
Derived terms[edit]
  • a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle
  • African fish eagle
  • all is fish that comes to the net
  • big fish
  • big fish in a little pond
  • big fish in a small pond
  • bigger fish in the sea
  • bigger fish to fry
  • buffy fish owl
  • cold fish
  • crooked as a barrel of fish hooks
  • cry stinking fish
  • dead fish
  • dried-fish woman
  • drink like a fish
  • dull fish
  • fish and brewis
  • fish and chippery
  • fish and chips, fish ‘n’ chips
  • fish and company stink after three days
  • fish ball, fish-ball
  • fish beam
  • fish cage
  • fish camp
  • fish coop
  • fish cop
  • fish corral
  • fish crow
  • fish eagle
  • fish eye
  • fish farm
  • fish farmer
  • fish farming
  • fish feed
  • fish finger
  • fish food
  • fish fork
  • fish fry
  • fish fur
  • fish garth
  • fish glue
  • fish hurricane
  • fish in troubled waters
  • fish kettle
  • fish ladder
  • fish louse
  • fish malodor syndrome
  • fish moon
  • fish odor syndrome
  • fish oil
  • fish or cut bait
  • fish owl
  • fish pass
  • fish sauce
  • fish science
  • fish scrap
  • fish slice
  • fish steps
  • fish stick
  • fish storm
  • fish story
  • fish strainer
  • fish supper
  • fish tape
  • fish tea
  • fish therapy
  • fish to fry
  • fish trowel
  • fish wheel
  • fish wrap, fish-wrap
  • fish-and-chipper
  • fish-basket
  • fish-bellied
  • fish-eating grin
  • fish-eating rat
  • fish-eye lens
  • fish-fag
  • fish-hawk, fish hawk
  • fish-head, fish head
  • fish-hook theory
  • fish-horn, fish horn
  • fish-house, fish house
  • fish-knife, fish knife
  • fish-mongress, fish mongress
  • fish-out-of-water, fish out of water
  • fish-trap, fish trap
  • fishberry
  • fishbowl, fish bowl
  • fishbrain
  • fishcake, fish-cake, fish cake
  • fisher
  • fisher cat
  • fisherman
  • fishful
  • fishgig, fish gig
  • fishhook, fish hook
  • fishkill, fish kill
  • fishkind
  • fishless
  • fishlike
  • fishling
  • fishly
  • fishmeal, fish meal
  • fishmonger
  • fishmoth
  • fishpaste, fish paste
  • fishpond, fish-pond, fish pond
  • fishpound, fish pound
  • fishpox
  • fishroom
  • fishscale, fish-scale, fish scale
  • fishskin
  • fishskin disease
  • fishtail, fish-tail, fish tail
  • fishtank, fish tank
  • fishway
  • fishwife
  • fishwoman
  • fishworm
  • fishy
  • fly-fish
  • give a man a fish, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
  • go fish
  • half-fish
  • have other fish to fry
  • I don’t eat fish
  • ice fish
  • jellyfish, jelly-fish, jelly fish
  • kettle of fish
  • like shooting fish in a barrel
  • line fisher
  • line fishing
  • mad as a fish
  • Madagascan fish eagle, Madagascar fish eagle
  • make fish of one and flesh of another, make fish of one and fowl of another
  • mock fish
  • neither fish nor flesh
  • neither fish nor fowl
  • neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
  • neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring, neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring
  • odd fish
  • one man’s fish is another man’s poison, one man’s fish is another man’s poisson
  • other fish in the sea
  • overfish
  • purple-fish
  • queer fish
  • shellfish
  • silverfish
  • sleep with the fishes
  • soup and fish, soup-and-fish
  • soup-and-fish suit
  • starfish
  • strange fish
  • swim like a fish
  • the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet
  • the fish rots from the head
  • there are plenty more fish in the sea, there are plenty of fish in the sea
  • there’s always a bigger fish
  • there’s plenty more fish in the sea
  • tinfish, tin fish
  • unfishiness
  • unfishy
  • what does that have to do with the price of fish
  • wooden fish
[edit]
  • (adj): fishly, piscine, fishy (inf.)
  • (astronomical): The Fish, Pisces
  • (collective): piscifauna
  • (combinatorial form): pisci- (Latinate, general)
  • (fish-catcher): See fisher
  • (fish-eater): piscivore
  • (fish-infesting): piscolous
  • (fish-killing): piscicidal
  • (fish-like): fishly, piscose (culinary), fishy, fishlike (inf.)
  • (fish science): fishlore, piscatology (irreg.)
  • (fish-shaped): pisciform
  • (fish vendor): fishmonger, piscitarian
  • (full of fish): fishful, pisculent
  • (skin disorder): fish-skin disease
  • (state of being a fish): fishdom, fishhood (formal), piscinity (formal), fishiness (inf.)
  • (taxonomical): Actinopterygii, bony fish, cartilaginous fish, finned fish, finfish, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii
Descendants[edit]
  • Sranan Tongo: fisi
  • → Chinook Jargon: pish
  • → Finnish: fisu
  • → Zulu: ufishi
Translations[edit]
See also[edit]
  • Appendix:Fish

Etymology 2[edit]

Deverbal from to fish (etymology 3).

Noun[edit]

fish (plural fishes)

  1. A period of time spent fishing.

    The fish at the lake didn’t prove successful.

  2. An instance of seeking something.

    Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.

Etymology 3[edit]

From Old English fiscian, from Proto-West Germanic *fiskōn, from Proto-Germanic *fiskōną.

Verb[edit]

fish (third-person singular simple present fishes, present participle fishing, simple past and past participle fished)

  1. (intransitive) To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a body of water.

    We went fishing for crabs by the pier.

    She went to the river to fish for trout.

    • 19th c., anonymous, «The Bonny Ship the ‘Diamond'»
      It’s cheer up, my lads, let your hearts never fail,
      For the bonny ship the Diamond goes a-fishing for the whale.
  2. (transitive) To search (a body of water) for something other than fish.

    They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.

  3. (fishing, transitive) To use as bait when fishing.

    • 1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 40:

      `What you need are frogs,’ said the veteran. `Fish them at night. There’s nothing like them on big cork floats.’

  4. (intransitive) To (attempt to) find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.
    Synonym: rummage

    Why are you fishing through my things?

    He was fishing for the keys in his pocket.

  5. (intransitive, followed by «for» or «around for») To talk to people in an attempt to get them to say something, or seek to obtain something by artifice.

    The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.

    The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.

    • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
      Laoctonos is fishing for a compliment,
      But ’tis his due. Yes, you have drunk more wine,
      And shed more blood, than any man in Thebes.
  6. (intransitive, cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
  7. (nautical, transitive) To repair (a spar or mast) by fastening a beam or other long object (often called a fish) over the damaged part (see Noun above).
    • 1970, James Henderson, The Frigates, an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815, Wordsworth (1998), page 143:
      […] the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars.
  8. (nautical, transitive) To hoist the flukes of.
    • 1860, Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons (page 214)
      Found that the cause of the ship’s having drifted on the night of the 19th, was from the bight of the chain span (used to fish the anchor,) having slipped between the shank and upper fluke, thereby preventing the lower fluke from opening […]
Synonyms[edit]
  • (try to catch a fish): angle, drop in a line
  • (try to find something): rifle, rummage
  • (attempt to gain (compliments, etc)): angle
Derived terms[edit]
  • don’t fish off the company dock
  • fish out
  • fishable
  • fisher
  • fishery
  • fishline
  • fishnet
  • fishnet stockings
  • you don’t fish off the company pier
Translations[edit]

intransitive: to try to catch fish

  • Arabic: صَادَ‎ (ar) (ṣāda)
    Moroccan Arabic: صيّد‎ (ṣayyəd)
  • Armenian: ձուկ բռնել (juk bṙnel)
  • Aromanian: piscuescu
  • Asturian: pescar
  • Basque: arrantzan egin (eu)
  • Belarusian: рыба́чыць impf (rybáčycʹ), лаві́ць ры́бу impf (lavícʹ rýbu)
  • Borôro: wogu
  • Breton: pesketa (br)
  • Bulgarian: ловя́ ри́ба impf (lovjá ríba)
  • Catalan: pescar (ca)
  • Cebuano: mamasol, mamukot, managat, mangisda
  • Cherokee: ᎠᏧᎲᏍᎦ (atsuhvsga)
  • Chinese:
    Cantonese: 釣魚／钓鱼 (diu3 jyu4-2)
    Mandarin: 釣魚／钓鱼 (zh) (diàoyú), 漁／渔 (zh) (yú) (literary, or used in compounds)
  • Classical Nahuatl: *michahci, michma
  • Czech: rybařit
  • Danish: fiske (da)
  • Dutch: vissen (nl), hengelen (nl), snoeken (nl) (when fishing for this particular kind of fish)
  • Egyptian:

    G51A

    (ḥꜣm)

  • Esperanto: fiŝkapti
  • Fijian: siwa, qoli
  • Finnish: kalastaa (fi)
  • French: pêcher (fr)
  • Friulian: pescjâ, pesčhâ
  • Galician: pescar (gl)
  • German: fischen (de), angeln (de)
  • Gothic: 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍉𐌽 (fiskōn)
  • Greek: ψαρεύω (el) (psarévo), αλιεύω (el) (aliévo)
    Ancient: ἁλιεύω (halieúō)
  • Greenlandic: aalisarpoq
  • Guaraní: kutu (transitive), pirakutu (intransitive)
  • Hawaiian: lawaiʻa
  • Hungarian: halászik (hu)
  • Icelandic: veiða (is) (also ‘hunt’), fiska (is) (less common)
  • Ido: peskar (io)
  • Indonesian: pancing (id)
  • Interlingua: piscar
  • Irish:
    Old Irish: ad·claid
  • Istriot: pascà
  • Italian: pescare (it)
  • Japanese: 釣る (ja) (tsuru)
  • Kabuverdianu: piska, peská
  • Kaingang: vim ke
  • Khmer: នេសាទ (km) (neisaat)
  • Korean: 낚시하다 (ko) (naksihada)
  • Lao: ປະມົງ (pa mong)
  • Latin: piscor
  • Latvian: zvejot (lv), makšķerēt
  • Lithuanian: žvejoti, žuvauti, meškerioti
  • Lombard: pescà
  • Luxembourgish: fëschen (lb)
  • Malay: menangkap ikan, memancing (angling)
  • Malayalam: മീൻപിടിക്കുക (mīṉpiṭikkuka)
  • Maori: hī (with a hook), matira (with a rod), hao (with a net), māngoingoi (with a line), makamaka (with a hook and line), makamaka ika (with a hook and line)
  • Middle English: fisshen
  • Norman: pêtchi (Jersey)
  • Norwegian: fiske (no)
  • Occitan: pescar (oc)
  • Old English: fiscian
  • Persian: ماهی‌گیری‎ (mâhi-giri)
  • Polish: łowić ryby, wędkować (pl) impf
  • Portuguese: pescar (pt)
  • Quechua: challway
  • Romani:
    Kalo Finnish Romani: matšalaa
  • Romanian: pescui (ro)
  • Romansch: pestgar, pescar, pastgear
  • Russian: рыба́чить (ru) impf (rybáčitʹ), лови́ть ры́бу impf (lovítʹ rýbu)
  • Sardinian: piscae, piscai, piscare
  • Serbo-Croatian: pecati (sh) impf, upecati (sh) pf
  • Shor: палықтарға (palıqtarğa)
  • Slovene: ribariti (sl), loviti ribe
  • Southern Ohlone: huynina
  • Spanish: pescar (es)
  • Swedish: fiska (sv)
  • Thai: ตกปลา (dtòk-bplaa), ประมง (th) (bprà-mong)
  • Tok Pisin: huk
  • Turkish: balık tutmak (tr)
  • Ukrainian: риба́лити impf (rybályty), лови́ти ри́бу impf (lovýty rýbu)
  • Vietnamese: câu cá (vi)
  • Walloon: pexhî (wa)
  • Welsh: pysgota (cy)
  • West Frisian: fiskje
  • White Hmong: nuv ntses

transitive: to try to find something in a body of water

  • Finnish: kalastaa (fi), onkia (fi), naarata (fi)
  • Greek: ψαρεύω (el) (psarévo)
  • Russian: лови́ть (ru) impf (lovítʹ), вы́ловить (ru) pf (výlovitʹ)
  • Walloon: rapexhî (wa)

cricket: to attempt to hit outside off stump and miss

to attempt to gain something

nautical: to repair by beam or similar long object

Etymology 4[edit]

Borrowed from French fiche (“peg, mark”).

Noun[edit]

fish (plural fishes)

  1. (obsolete) A counter, used in various games.

References[edit]

  • fish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  1. ^ Reuben, David R. (1969), chapter 8, in Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were too afraid to ask, New York: David McKay Company, Inc., published 1970, →LCCN, Homosexuals have their own language?, page 145: “FISH: woman (contemptuously)”

Further reading[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

fish (plural fishes or fish)

  1. Alternative form of fisch
Источник

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