catfishing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Deceiving people online by posing as someone else through an invented social media profile.

   Police warned that catfishing has become a common way to defraud lonely people.

   After months of online dating, she realized she had been a victim of catfishing.

   Similarimpersonation

   Note

   An internet-era name for a whole practice, so it usually appears without an article: a victim of catfishing, warnings that catfishing is spreading. The plural catfishings exists for counting separate cases, but the mass use is the normal one. Around it gather the words of fraud and deception (defraud, victim, fake profile), and this is the register police warnings and news reports use.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of catfish.

   Investigators discovered he had been catfishing dozens of victims across multiple platforms.

   Catfishing unsuspecting users for money, the scammer built fake romantic relationships.

   Note

   Internet slang, and a verb that needs a victim. Someone catfishes a person, so the -ing form usually carries its object along: catfishing dozens of victims, catfishing lonely users. Drop the object and it drifts toward the noun for the practice. Because the verb is slang, careful or formal writing often prefers a plain paraphrase such as deceiving people with a fake profile.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of catfish.

   We went catfishing at dawn and filled the cooler by noon.

   Catfishing in these warm shallows usually means a long, patient wait.

   Note

   The angler's verb takes no object. You go catfishing, or spend a morning catfishing, but you never catfish something. That is the quickest way to tell it from the online-deception verb, which has the same spelling but always has a victim. As a gerund it names the outing itself, so it sits comfortably after go, the way fishing and hunting do.

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