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.
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
A numbers man more than a people person, he’s a fish out of water in Atlanta, as he spells out in the song “How Can I Call This Home?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025
I was a little bit of a fish out of water.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2024
Jefferson brings the comedy so wonderfully, of this fish out of water.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2024
She wouldn’t be able to smoke them out—her five remaining matches had perished at the same time as the kudu meat—but perhaps she could use a long stick to fish out the honey.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
