fish out
Britishverb
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Also, fish up . Discover and retrieve something from a pile or store. For example, She finally fished out the right letter from the files , or He fished up a scandal for the paper to run in the early edition . This usage likens pulling fish from the sea to finding something. [Mid-1600s]
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Deplete the fish in a body of water by fishing, as in This stream is completely fished out .
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.
One classmate decided it’d be fun to raid my cubbyhole, fish out my report card, read it aloud.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Again, I feel like a fish out of water.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
But in peacetime, he’s a fish out of water.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
To continue the maritime theme, Wolves have looked like a fish out of water for most of this Premier League campaign.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
I pulled my string of fish out of the water and showed ’em to him.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
