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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

Upon introducing myself, Hipólito Raposo sat me down and ordered me tomato carpaccio, fish soup and a glass of house wine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

The diet emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, nuts, and olive oil — and limiting foods like red meat, cheese and sugar.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026

One of them apparently hooked the fish, but the shark spat out the bait, according to Kohanchi’s account of events in the video.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

The overloaded government ferry -- a vital link for villagers and fish traders around the vast lake -- overturned in choppy waters on Tuesday in one of the country's worst passenger boat disasters.

From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026

My cousin shakes her head as if she’s been offered a plate of fish guts.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

They made off with "Fish" by Auguste Renoir, "Still Life with Cherries" by Paul Cezanne, and "Odalisque on the Terrace" by Henri Matisse.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

“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

In early June, Shields, his wife and kids, ages 4 and 7, made the trek back to Yosemite, staying outside the park at Tenaya at Yosemite in Fish Camp.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 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 scoots in, inhales the speck of chum.

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

Christoph had framed a fourteen-by-twenty-inch print of Henrietta’s chromosomes that he’d “painted” using FISH.

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

It says the blue shark is one of Ireland's largest and most valuable marine sport fishes.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

"We lost 85% of the marine prairies, and we saw the fishes on the shore looking for oxygen, and these images were horrible," he said.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 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

We humans eat seven fishes on Christmas Eve, samosas on Eid al-Fitr and maple cookies behind the moon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026

He tilts his head back and fishes for a deep breath of the stagnant air above our heads.

From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper

The book initially focuses on the Chumash people, on Southern California’s Channel Islands, who once fished from small boats made of bundled reeds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 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

For generations, Seynabou Tall's ancestors have fished, dived and rowed off the coast of Dakar, where the 14-year-old, who quit school nearly four years ago, is now learning to surf.

From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026

I fished around in my backpack until I found a piece of paper and a pen.

From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor

The lake, which straddles the border with Zambia, is one of the world's largest man-made reservoirs, supporting transport and fishing and providing vital hydroelectric power to both countries.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

But many whales are also identifiable by their scars, including from collisions with everything from tankers, cargo and cruise ships to fishing boats and recreational vessels.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

A kayaker was bitten by a hammerhead that year, too, and people fishing off Sunset Beach encountered a 10-foot hammerhead, according to news accounts at the time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

“This is a great fishing shirt,” he said.

From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026

Two lines of people were hauling the towropes of a fishing net on the other side of the canoes.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo