fish for
Idioms-
Try to obtain something through artifice or indirectly. For example, He was always fishing for compliments , or, as William Makepeace Thackeray put it in Vanity Fair (1848): “The first woman who fishes for him, hooks him.” [Mid-1500s]
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Search for something, as in I've fished for it in all the drawers . [First half of 1700s]
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.
After tracking each fish for its entire life, the team grouped them by lifespan and then looked back to identify when behavioral differences first appeared.
From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026
Maybe it’s flaky white fish for tacos or beer-battered fish and chips; a cola- and honey-glazed ham that carries you through Sunday lunch and the week’s best sandwiches; impossibly crisp chicken thighs.
From Salon • Dec. 20, 2025
He said Beckstrom loved to hunt and fish for bass and bluegill and ride four-wheelers on trails through the mountains.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 29, 2025
The chimp she later named David Graybeard had been using the stalk to fish for the bugs.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2025
At times the salmon ran in such narrow waters that men had to fish for them in sight of one another, in which case arguments brewed.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
