DictionaryAI

catfish

KAT-fish/ˈkætfɪʃ/

Pluralcatfish, catfishes

Verbcatfishes, catfishing, catfished

6 meanings of catfish

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable or uncountable
    A fish with no scales and long feelers like whiskers around its mouth, usually living in rivers and lakes.

    Like a fish with long whiskers on its face, the way a cat has whiskers.

    A big catfish lurked at the bottom of the muddy pond.

    We caught two catfish near the riverbank yesterday.

    Note
  2. 2
    verbslangtransitive
    To trick someone online by pretending to be a different person with a fake profile.

    Like wearing a mask online so no one knows who you really are.

    He catfished her for months by using someone else's photos.

    Scammers often catfish lonely people to steal their money.

    Similardeceive, dupe, con, scam

    Note
  3. 3
    nouncountable
    A person who uses a fake online profile to trick others.

    Like someone wearing a costume so you cannot tell who they really are.

    The catfish used a model's photos to fool dozens of people.

    She turned out to be a catfish with three fake accounts.

    Similarimpostor, fraud, scammer

    Note
  4. 4
    nouncountable or uncountable
    The meat of the whiskered river fish, cooked and eaten as food.

    We fried catfish for dinner with cornmeal and spices.

    Fresh catfish tastes mild and slightly sweet.

  5. 5
    nouncountable
    A fake online profile made to trick people into thinking it is real.

    Like a fake face that pretends to be a real person.

    Her online boyfriend turned out to be a catfish.

    He spotted the catfish right away from the stolen photos.

    Similarfake

  6. 6
    verbintransitive
    To go fishing in order to catch catfish.

    We like to catfish on warm summer evenings.

    They catfished all weekend down at the lake.

    Note

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of catfish apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1, 4, 6

From 'cat' plus 'fish', probably because its whisker-like barbels look like a cat's whiskers.

Meanings 2–3, 5

From the 2010 documentary 'Catfish', said to be inspired by fishermen storing cod with catfish that nipped at their tails to keep them active.