fish

[ fish ]

/ fɪʃ /

Save This Word!

noun, plural (especially collectively) fish, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) fish·es.

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

(loosely) any of various aquatic animals.

the flesh of fishes used as food.

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

Informal. a person: an odd fish; a poor fish.

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

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

Slang. a dollar: He sold the car for 500 fish.

Slang.

a new prison inmate.
a high school or college freshman; frosh.

verb (used with object)

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

to try to catch fish in (a stream, lake, etc.): Let's fish the creek.

to draw, as by fishing (often followed by up or out): He fished a coin out of his pocket for the boy.

to search through, as by fishing.

Nautical.

to secure (an anchor) by raising the flukes.
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)

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

to search carefully: He fished through all his pockets but his wallet was gone.

to seek to obtain something indirectly or by artifice: to fish for compliments; to fish for information.

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.

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

Verb Phrases

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

QUIZ

CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?

There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?

Question 1 of 7

Which sentence is correct?

His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Idioms about fish

drink like a fish, to drink alcoholic beverages to excess: Nobody invites him out because he drinks like a fish.

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

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

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.

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

other fish to fry, other matters requiring attention: When it was time to act, they had other fish to fry.

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

OTHER WORDS FROM fish

fish·less, adjectivefish·like, adjectiveout·fish, verb (used with object)un·fished, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH fish

fiche, fish

Words nearby fish

fiscal year, Fischer, Fischer-Dieskau, Fischer-Tropsch process, Fischer von Erlach, fish, fishable, fish and brewis, fish and chips, fish-and-chip shop, fish-bellied

Other definitions for fish (2 of 2)

Fish

[ fish ]

/ fɪʃ /

noun

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

ABOUT THIS WORD

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.

Where does fish come from?

Fish has been recorded as prison slang for new inmates since the 1870s. The term apparently likens new prisoners to fish fresh out of the water. One theory about the slang’s origin claims that inmates were issued uniforms with their inmate numbers stamped with an ink that smelled fishy when wet.

Fish for new inmates shouldn’t be confused with another prison slang term, fishing. This refers to using a string to pass contraband items between cells in a manner similar to casting a fishing line.

Security update. Spot check by prison security staff found this. Did you spot it? Blue in color cable placed over the wall. Drops down into inmate holding area and being used as a 'fishing line' to move contraband. Corrective action taken. #safeprisons pic.twitter.com/islbBC3qfE

— Seychelles Prison Service (@SeychellePrison) October 29, 2018

Fish is also slang in the drag community. Alluding to popular beliefs about female genitalia, fish, here, refers to a drag queen who closely resembles a woman. Referring to a drag queen as fishy, or saying they are serving fish, is considered complimentary within the drag community, but keep in mind that such a description for women and their bodies is generally extremely offensive.

How is fish used in real life?

Both prisoners and prison staff may use fish to belittle new, first-time inmates. It has appeared in popular media, including the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, as well as in a 2005 episode of the TV show Prison Break, which contains the fan favorite line “Welcome to Prisneyland, fish.”

Once again, in drag culture, fish/fishy/serving fish are taken as compliments, but, elsewhere, likening female genitalia to a fish is offensive.

More examples of fish:

“Walking a dog down the streets of LA is like walking the new fish down a crowded row of prison cells in a movie.”
—@shelbyfero, October 2018

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.

How to use fish in a sentence

On March 20, 2019, fish caught in Ohio’s Cuyahoga River were declared safe to eat by federal environmental regulators.
51 Years Later, the Cuyahoga River Burns Again|Wes Siler|August 28, 2020|Outside Online
The new work provides important context for data being collected on fish stocks.
Species may swim thousands of kilometers to escape ocean heat waves|Carolyn Gramling|August 10, 2020|Science News
Sims and Berni wonder how these ideas might be explored in vertebrates like mice and zebra fish.
Random Search Wired Into Animals May Help Them Hunt|Liam Drew|June 11, 2020|Quanta Magazine
For example, fishes who start living and evolving in unlit caves often lose their eyes, because the costs of developing them outweigh their advantages.
Evolution: Why It Seems to Have a Direction and What to Expect Next|Matthew Wills|June 10, 2020|Singularity Hub

This makes the online world an exceptionally volatile environment, where big fishes swallow the small ones.
SEO on a shoestring budget: What small business owners can do to win|Ali Faagba|June 4, 2020|Search Engine Watch
When Chérif got out of prison, he worked at the fish counter of a supermarket.
France Mourns—and Hunts|Nico Hines, Christopher Dickey|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“The government just wanted to catch the big fish [in the Juarez cartel] and they ignored everything in between,” Lozoya said.
An Informant, a Missing American, and Juarez’s House of Death: Inside the 12-Year Cold Case of David Castro|Bill Conroy|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Kocurek documented the scene with notes and diagrams, and called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.|David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer corroborated another account.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.|David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A Fish and Wildlife special agent collected the bodies of two birds at the site, a redhead duck and a mourning dove.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.|David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He must be The saltest fish that swims the sea.And, oh!He has a secret woe!
Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17)|Various
He looked up from his fish and replied, somewhat cuttingly, "By contesting a borough and getting elected."
Ancestors|Gertrude Atherton
Smoking, the angry and fuming king protests, had made our manners as rude as those of the fish-wives of Dieppe.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
But what if I catch the fish by using a hired boat and a hired net, or by buying worms as bait from some one who has dug them?
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
The Taube has been bothering us again, but wound up its manœuvres very decently by killing some fish for our dinner.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton

British Dictionary definitions for fish (1 of 2)

fish

/ (fɪʃ) /

noun plural fish or fishes

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)
(in combination)fishpond Related adjectives: ichthyic, ichthyoid, piscine

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

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

the flesh of fish used as food

informal a person of little emotion or intelligencea poor fish

short for fishplate

Also called: tin fish an informal word for torpedo (def. 1)

a fine kettle of fish an awkward situation; mess

drink like a fish to drink (esp alcohol) to excess

have other fish to fry to have other activities to do, esp more important ones

like a fish out of water out of one's usual place

make fish of one and flesh of another Irish to discriminate unfairly between people

neither fish, flesh, nor fowl neither this nor that

verb

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

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

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

(intr foll by for) to seek something indirectlyto fish for compliments

Derived forms of fish

fishable, adjectivefishlike, adjective

Word Origin for fish

Old English fisc; related to Old Norse fiskr, Gothic fiscs, Russian piskar, Latin piscis

British Dictionary definitions for fish (2 of 2)

FISH

/ (fɪʃ) /

n acronym for

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for fish

fish

[ fĭsh ]

Plural fish fishes

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.

Other Idioms and Phrases with fish

fish

In addition to the idioms beginning with fish

fish for
fishing expedition
fish in troubled waters
fish or cut bait
fish out
fish out of water, a
fish story

also see:

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

fish

Idioms about fish

Origin of fish

OTHER WORDS FROM fish

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH fish

Words nearby fish

Other definitions for fish (2 of 2)

ABOUT THIS WORD

What else does fish mean?

Where does fish come from?

How is fish used in real life?

Note

Words related to fish

How to use fish in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for fish (1 of 2)

Derived forms of fish

Word Origin for fish

British Dictionary definitions for fish (2 of 2)

Scientific definitions for fish

Other Idioms and Phrases with fish