fish
Pluralfish, fishes
Pluralfish, fishes
- 1An animal that lives in water, swims using fins, and breathes through gills.
A small fish swam past my feet in the shallow water.
The pond was full of tiny fish.
UsageThe plural is usually also fish: two fish, many fish.
- 2To catch or try to catch fish or other water animals, or to gather coral or pearls from the sea floor.
They fish from the rocks every summer.
Local boats fish these waters for crab.
UsageSay go fishing or fish for something.
Note
- 3The meat of a fish, eaten as food.
We grilled fish for dinner on the beach.
Fresh fish tastes much better than the frozen kind.
UsageFor food, say fish with no a: eat fish, a piece of fish.
Similarseafood
Note
- 4A length of time spent catching fish.
We had a good fish at the lake this morning.
They went down to the lake for a fish but came home with an empty bucket.
UsageSay go for a fish or have a fish.
Note
Less common meanings
- 5To search for something by feeling around for it, for example in a bag or under water.
Like reaching into a deep bag to feel around for something you cannot see.
She fished in her bag for her phone.
He had to fish around in the box for the right part.
UsageSay fish in your bag for your keys.
Similarrummage, dig, grope, root, feel
Note
- 6To try to get someone to say or give you something in an indirect way.
Like putting out a hook and waiting to see what you catch: but you use words.
Don't fish for compliments when you already know you did well.
She kept fishing for gossip about her coworkers.
Usagefishing for compliments means trying to get people to praise you.
Note
- 7
- 8A card game where players ask each other for cards to make pairs or sets.
The kids played fish at the kitchen table.
Fish is easy enough for a five-year-old to learn.
UsageSay play fish or play Go Fish.
- 9
- 10To use something as bait to catch fish.
Many anglers fish live worms for trout.
He fished a shiny lure near the rocks.
Note
- 11An old use for any animal that lives in water, as still seen in words like starfish.
Long ago, people called the whale a fish because it lives in the sea.
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.
1851, Herman Melville, Moby-DickHere, fish means any animal that lives in water, so a whale counts.Note
- 12
- 13A water animal that Catholics are allowed to eat on Fridays during Lent.
Long ago, the church said the beaver was fish, so people could eat it on Fridays.
In the Middle Ages, some people ate barnacle geese on fast days, claiming the birds counted as fish.
Oppositemeat
Note
- 14Cod, an ocean fish that people catch and eat.
We caught lots of mackerel today, but not one fish.
We caught plenty of mackerel off the dock today, but not one fish, so there's no cod for supper.
Similarcod
Note
- 15
- 16A torpedo, an underwater weapon that moves by itself and explodes when it hits or gets near a ship.
Like an underwater rocket that races toward a ship and blows up.
The submarine fired a fish at the enemy ship.
The crew loaded another fish into the tube.
Similartorpedo
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- 17
- 18A slang word for women, or for a very feminine woman. It can be rude, or it can be praise.
The party was mostly guys, with hardly any fish in the room.
The rude guys at the bar called all the women there fish.
Note
- 19A drag queen or trans woman who looks just like a woman who was born female.
At the drag show, people kept saying she was a total fish because she looked so real.
The other performers told him he was a fish in that dress and makeup.
Note
- 20A rude, insulting word for a gay man.
Rumors that he had a boyfriend spread, and soon the older men were calling him a fish behind his back.
Years after he came out, he still flinched at the memory of being called a fish all through school in Kingston.
UsageSay gay man instead.
Note
- 21
- 22A piece of wood or metal tied lengthwise along a ship's mast or spar to mend or strengthen it for a while.
The crew tied a fish along the broken mast to keep it standing.
A wooden fish held the cracked spar together until repairs could be made.
Similarsplint
Note
- 23In sailing, to mend a broken mast or spar by tying a strong beam over the damaged part.
The sailors fished the broken mast with a strong wooden beam.
We need to fish the spar before the wind picks up.
Similarsplint, brace, reinforce, strengthen
Note
- 24
- 25In computer cellular automata, a pattern of cells that moves steadily across the grid.
Like a little shape made of dots that slides across a screen by itself.
In the Game of Life, a fish is a small shape that slides across the grid forever.
On the Life grid, the fish kept changing shape as it crept to the left.
Similarspaceship
Note
- 26In fortune-telling card reading, the thirty-fourth card of the Lenormand deck.
The reader drew the fish and said money was on its way.
When the fish turns up, many readers think of wealth.
Note
- 27A fish with no jaws, such as a lamprey.
- 28An extinct early fish with hard bony armor on its head.
- 29An extinct early fish with spines on its fins.
- 30To pull up the hooked ends of a ship's anchor.
- 31A small piece used in a game to count points or stand for money.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
The old English word for fish, going far back through Germanic and even older languages.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The noun fish descends from Old English, with earlier Germanic and Proto-Indo-European ancestry. en.wiktionary.org
This noun comes from the verb "to fish".
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The noun under etymology 2, meaning a period spent fishing or an instance of seeking something, derives from the verb fish. en.wiktionary.org
From an Old English verb meaning "to fish", found across the Germanic languages.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The verb fish derives from Old English fiscian. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English fiscian means “to fish”. en.wiktionary.org
- The verb has cognates across the Germanic languages. en.wiktionary.org