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Synonyms

fish out

British  

verb

  1. (tr, adverb) to find or extract (something)

    to fish keys out of a pocket
"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
fish out Idioms  

  1. 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]

  2. 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.

I felt like a fish out of water.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 16, 2025

"I do feel like a fish out of water. The knock-on effects has been massive. I'm just riding the wave of it really," she said.

From BBC • Sep. 18, 2024

Although Duthiers succeeded in finance, he felt like a fish out of water.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 20, 2024

“David would be like a fish out of water if he were out of public service,” Bumpers, who served 18 years with Pryor in the Senate, said in 2006.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 20, 2024

And who did they fish out of the arena instead?

From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins

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.