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• fish
  fish

  noun

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

  noun

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

  acronym

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

fish

¹ American  

[fish] / fɪʃ /

noun

• fish,
  plural
• fishes
  plural

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

2. (loosely) any of various aquatic animals.

3. the flesh of fishes used as food.

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

5. Informal. a person.

   an odd fish; a poor fish.

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

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

8. Slang. a dollar.

   He sold the car for 500 fish.

9. Slang.

   1. a new prison inmate.

   2. a high school or college freshman; frosh.

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verb (used with object)

• fishes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fished,
  past participle,  past
• fishing
  present participle

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

2. to try to catch fish in (a stream, lake, etc.).

   Let's fish the creek.

3. to draw, as by fishing (often followed by up orout ).

   He fished a coin out of his pocket for the boy.

4. to search through, as by fishing.

5. 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)

• fishes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fished,
  past participle,  past
• fishing
  present participle

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

2. to search carefully.

   He fished through all his pockets but his wallet was gone.

3. to seek to obtain something indirectly or by artifice.

   to fish for compliments; to fish for information.

4. 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.

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

verb phrase

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

idioms

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

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

3. other fish to fry, other matters requiring attention.

   When it was time to act, they had other fish to fry.

4. drink like a fish, to drink alcoholic beverages to excess.

   Nobody invites him out because he drinks like a fish.

5. 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.

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

Fish ² American  

[fish] / fɪʃ /

noun

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

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fish ¹ British  

/ fɪʃ /

noun

1. 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

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

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

4. the flesh of fish used as food

5. informal a person of little emotion or intelligence

   a poor fish

6. short for fishplate

7. Also called: tin fish.  an informal word for torpedo

8. an awkward situation; mess

9. to drink (esp alcohol) to excess

10. to have other activities to do, esp more important ones

11. out of one's usual place

12. to discriminate unfairly between people

13. neither this nor that

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verb

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

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

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

4. to seek something indirectly

   to fish for compliments

FISH ² British  

/ fɪʃ /

acronym

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

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fish Scientific  

/ fĭsh /

• fish
  plural

1. 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.

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fish More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing fish

• 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

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Usage

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.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• outfish
  verb (used with object)
• fishable
  adjective
• fishless
  adjective
• fishlike
  adjective
• unfished
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fish
  plural
• fishes
  plural

Participles

• fishing
  present
• fished
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fish
  simple
• fishes
  simple
• have fished
  perfect
• has fished
  perfect
• am fishing
  progressive
• are fishing
  progressive
• is fishing
  progressive
• have been fishing
  perfect progressive
• has been fishing
  perfect progressive

Past

• fished
  simple
• had fished
  perfect
• was fishing
  progressive
• were fishing
  progressive
• had been fishing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fish
  simple
• will have fished
  perfect
• will be fishing
  progressive
• will have been fishing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

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

Explanation

A fish is a cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate with scales and gills, like a shark, a trout, or a pike. To fish is to try to catch a fish. Fish comes from an old German version of the Latin word for "fish," piscus, from which you might recognize the astrological sign Pisces. The word can describe either the creature or the meat from the creature. When fish is a verb, it can be used literally for the act of trying to catch a fish, or metaphorically for trying to find something, like fishing for someone's name in your memory.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fish Fish FISH fishes fished fishing

The team then examined patterns of gene activity in the fish to determine which genes had become more or less active.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

Lower flows can concentrate the very pollution the new data is designed to track, leaving fish and other aquatic life exposed to more dangerous levels.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The show, meanwhile, suggests that ordinary Americans priced out of meat try fish — any fish, even canned.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

Customs one night at JFK, an agent pulled out a stone fish, the world’s most venomous.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

The big bird swooped, grabbed the stuffed fish, and let Nim pull a note from his band.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr

“Black bears become addicted to human food, and they seek it out,” said Alexia Ronning, Tahoe bear specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Our reader Stephen Thom said: "Fish needs to be in the Scottish Music Hall of Fame. Now he's officially retired from music maybe the first recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award?"

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

Fish and Wildlife Service had not relied on the best scientific and commercial data available in adding the lizard to the list.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

The new research, published in the Journal of Fish Biology, reports two healthy goblin sharks observed in the wild.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026

Fish had a chance to drown me and didn’t.

From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick

One can determine the pedigree of a disease, produce recombinants and detect the presence of extracellular genes using FISH.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

C.N. carried out all other parasite culturing and sample processing for Drop-seq and RNA FISH.

From Nature ● Sep. 24, 2017

Finally, a yet more sensitive test, called FISH, was done.

From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2012

And pop star Shakira has been attacked by a raging sea lion which thought her mobile phone was a FISH.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 14, 2012

As a Ph.D. student, he’d used HeLa to help develop something called fluorescence in situ hybridization, otherwise known as FISH, a technique for painting chromosomes with multicolored fluorescent dyes that shine bright under ultraviolet light.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Jonathan Sisler fishes for tuna and snapper 100 miles off the coast of Florida, and he wants to get to his spots in a hurry.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

Will Shugg, who fishes from Mevagissey, has been taking part in the trial as well as voluntarily having cameras monitoring his catches.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

John van Rooyen regularly surfs and spear fishes at the Tinley Manor beach, about 2 miles from where he lives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026

The study, published in the journal Science, focuses on "mesothermic" fishes.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 18, 2026

Some descendants of these fishes eventually abandoned the water and moved to dry land, where they evolved into other animals by the transmutation of one form into another.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

"I've lived here for 25 years and the water has never been this low," said pensioner Mitica Nicolae from Corabia as he fished in an irrigation canal close to the river.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

Still, he could salvage something, he said, pointing to his son as he fished out boxes of herbal treatments from under the rubble.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026

He says that his brother fished and planted crops, but travelled to Trinidad for better pay.

From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026

He moved to Las Cuevas, where he fished and worked in construction.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026

That was the ice she had to help Nokomis chop every day from the deep hole they fished through.

From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich

The chapters on the doctrine of “maximum sustainable yield” in fishery management and the fraught international negotiations of fishing rights are a bit of a slog.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

But they’re offset by Mr. Ogilvy’s stunning descriptions of the work in places such as Tunaville—the ethnically Portuguese fishing community of Point Loma, near San Diego—and on fishing boats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Zwijnenburg added that "a complete break of the ship can cause a regional environmental catastrophe, affecting both the lives of Omani fishing communities and the wider marine and island biodiversity".

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

At the end of the fishing season in Aberaeron, the Ceredigion town hosts a mackerel fiesta, described as "a light-hearted funeral" dedicated to the fast-swimming fish.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

He walked away from me then, going around the side of the house for his brothers’ fishing ropes, reaching for the cart to carry them, using his wrists rather than his hands.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff