Jump To:

• 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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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

---

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.

---

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

---

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

McKibbin said that "current and future fish stocks obliterated for years to come".

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

Opponents, including environmental activists and fishing advocates, urged the board to reject the permit, saying the reservoir would siphon too much water out of the Sacramento River and harm salmon and other native fish.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026

Glenn McKibbin, the secretary of Inler Angling Club, said about 1,000 fish were killed in the incident and it "could not have happened in a worse location on the river or at a worse time".

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

It also occurs in some cartilaginous fish, including sharks and rays, suggesting that aspects of this organization have even deeper evolutionary roots.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026

The fish-hooks were empty except for one, which held the bones of a small fish, neatly nibbled clean.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Fish, chips and a drink in Wetherspoons in Sidcup, south-east London costs £11.18 but the same meal in Camden Town, north London costs £12.77.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

“They act so tough, but yet they seem so fragile,” says Holly Hicks, a wildlife coordinator for Arizona Game & Fish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

Kaur, who runs Monk Bretton's Ocean Fish Bar, in Barnsley, said: "To have me painted by someone that's painted the Queen, it's just amazing."

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

Incidents involving people are generally rare, according to John Ugoretz, Pelagic Fisheries and Ecosystem Program manager for the Marine Region of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

“When we get to the camper,” Jonathan said, “I’ll play Go, Fish with you.”

From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret

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

As a Ph.D. student, he’d used HeLa to help develop something called fluorescence in situ hybridization, otherwise known as FISH, a technique for painting chromosomes with multicolored fluorescent dyes that shine bright under ultraviolet light.

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

Now, when you think about the miracle of the fishes and the loaves in each of the four first books of the New Testament, it’s that important.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026

Mercury contamination, toxic algal blooms and invasive fishes have threatened a rare and revered local fish.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

Will Shugg, who fishes from Mevagissey, has been taking part in the trial as well as voluntarily having cameras monitoring his catches.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

Celtic art occupies a fluid, timeless plane where birds, fishes, dragons, gods, humans and pure motion continually morph and merge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

“Well,” said the Wart, “I can see why the reptiles who had given up being fishes decided to become birds. It certainly is tun.”

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

“It’s a very important, special area within and surrounded by areas that are heavily fished and also heavily burdened by pollution and industrialization,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026

Bigeye trevally are fished in many parts of the world, but here they are relatively safe.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

There’s a predictable resistance of In my day we fished with a wooden stick and a bottle cap and caught fish the size of Buicks, etc.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

"I've lived here for 25 years and the water has never been this low," said pensioner Mitica Nicolae from Corabia as he fished in an irrigation canal close to the river.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

In the old days they fished from schooners, big wooden ships with white canvas sails that took the fishermen far offshore to the Grand Banks fishing grounds.

From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick

All Marine Protected Areas are safeguarded by legislation, with damaging fishing activities banned in more than 100 sites, and we are also considering further restrictions where there may be benefits in doing so.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

This is a place better known for commercial fishing, where the fall moose harvest makes top news.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

Environmental activists, fishing advocates and Native leaders strongly criticized the plan, saying it will allow cities and farms to take far too much water out of the Delta.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

In mid-October, Taiwan identified six Chinese survey vessels, six Chinese coast-guard ships and four fishing boats that Taiwan believes are part of China’s maritime militia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

“He was fishing for information. He implied that both Jakob and Willa could be spies for the Germans.”

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---