fishy
Americanadjective
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of, involving, or suggestive of fish
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abounding in fish
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informal suspicious, doubtful, or questionable
their leaving at the same time looked fishy
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dull and lifeless
a fishy look
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of fishy
Explanation
Anything fishy smells, tastes, or resembles a fish in some way. Suspicious people and situations are also called fishy. Since this word has two meanings, context is key. If you say something is fishy, it probably means you think something is suspicious. If you’re sitting next to someone eating a tuna sandwich, though, you could just mean you smell a fishy odor. Fishy usually refers to situations that seem suspect or shady. A guy looking over your shoulder while you use an ATM is fishy. A student looking at her arm for answers during a test is fishy. Anything fishy is suspicious — somebody’s up to something.
Vocabulary lists containing fishy
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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Top Ten Relevant Words: Moby Dick, Chapters 1-16
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Mexikid
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The "Jolene" singer first began making hit songs in 1967 with "Something Fishy" and "Dumb Blonde," People magazine reported.
From Fox News • Dec. 17, 2021
Later, the Valley Voice posted an article under the headline “Tulare Politics Get Fishy as Hospital Recall Nears.”
From The New Yorker • Feb. 11, 2019
Fishy excuses — Holmes blamed a production delay on an earthquake in Japan — were blithely accepted.
From New York Times • May 21, 2018
Fishy tale: A mother faces jail time for selling homemade ceviche after she was arrested in an undercover sting.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 8, 2016
Fishy were his eyes, torpedinous was his manner; and his main idea, out of two which he really had, related to the moon—from which you infer, perhaps, that he was lunatic. p. 49By no means.
From The Vagabond in Literature by Rickett, Arthur
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
