# catfish

Pronunciation: say "KAT-fish" /ˈkætfɪʃ/

## Noun

1. A scaleless fish of the order Siluriformes, mostly living in fresh water and having whisker-like barbels around the mouth.
   - Simple: A fish with no scales and long feelers like whiskers around its mouth, usually living in rivers and lakes.
   - _The angler hauled a thirty-pound catfish out of the river._
   - _Catfish often feed at night, using their barbels to find food in murky water._
3. A person who sets up a false profile on social media in order to deceive others.
   - Simple: A person who uses a fake online profile to trick others.
   - _Police arrested the catfish after tracing the fake profile to his apartment._
   - _A clever catfish can keep a victim believing the relationship for years._
4. The meat of the scaleless, barbeled fish, popular in the Southern United States and Central Europe.
   - Simple: The meat of the whiskered river fish, cooked and eaten as food.
   - _The restaurant serves blackened catfish with a side of rice._
   - _In many Southern kitchens, catfish is dredged in cornmeal and deep-fried._
5. A false online profile created to deceive others into believing it represents a real person.
   - Simple: A fake online profile made to trick people into thinking it is real.
   - _The dating app removed the catfish after several users reported it._
   - _What looked like a real account was actually a catfish run by a scammer._

## Verb

2. To deceive someone by creating and running a fake online profile, usually to build a false relationship. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To trick someone online by pretending to be a different person with a fake profile.
   - _She realized he had catfished her only after months of online messages._
   - _Online predators sometimes catfish teenagers by posing as classmates._
6. To go fishing specifically for catfish, typically in rivers, lakes, and muddy ponds.
   - Simple: To go fishing in order to catch catfish.
   - _Locals catfish along the muddy banks after dark._
   - _He spent the whole morning catfishing from his small boat._

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 4, 6** — From 'cat' + 'fish', likely so named because its prominent barbels resemble a cat's whiskers. It is comparable to West Frisian 'katfisk', Dutch 'katvis', and German 'Seekatze' (literally 'sea-cat').
**Meanings 2–3, 5** — From the 2010 documentary 'Catfish', supposedly inspired by the practice of fishermen keeping cod active by storing them with catfish that nip at their tails.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/catfish (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).