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• bottom fish
  bottom fish

  noun

  any of certain fishes that live at or near the bottom of a body of water, as certain of the cod and related species, the flatfishes, and catfishes.
• bottom-fish
  bottom-fish

  verb (used without object)

  to fish with a weighted line for fish that feed close to the bottom.

bottom fish

¹ American  

noun

1. any of certain fishes that live at or near the bottom of a body of water, as certain of the cod and related species, the flatfishes, and catfishes.

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bottom-fish ² American  

[bot-uhm-fish] / ˈbɒt əmˌfɪʃ /

verb (used without object)

1. to fish with a weighted line for fish that feed close to the bottom.

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Etymology

Origin of bottom-fish

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Claudius lives on in our newsroom as a well-fed betta fish.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025

Petqua, a pet store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is now the temporary home of two guinea pigs, three turtles and a tiny school of betta fish, all recently relinquished by their owners.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 1, 2022

It featured five robots controlled by betta fish and was “designed to explore interspecies and trans-species communication,” according to Rinaldo’s website.

From The Verge • Jan. 4, 2022

The fishbowl existence of their pet betta fish, Blastoff McRocketboots, seems carefree by comparison.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 13, 2015

One of my colleagues has had a menagerie of pets over the past few years, including a hamster, guinea pigs and a betta fish.

From Washington Post