fishbowl
Americannoun
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fishbowls
plural
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a glass bowl for goldfish, snails, etc.
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a place, job, or condition in which one's activities are open to public view or scrutiny.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fishbowl
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.
See Examples For:
It felt like she was looking through a fishbowl, she could see straight ahead but not to her right or down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
She checked the security cameras at her home, noticing that a few windows opened and things fell off the shelf — but the biggest impact was her fishbowl: “My poor fish experienced a little tsunami.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
We see some guileless part of ourselves within him — a half-formed reflection in his goldfish Dorothy’s fishbowl.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2024
"The fishbowl -- not the fish -- needs to change."
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
Instead I feel something cold and round and plastic, and when I look, it’s a fishbowl with sand in it and a hermit crab, scurrying around with a shell on its back.
From "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
They're found in fishbowls on hostess stands in New Jersey diners, Chicago rib joints and the Ahwahnee Hotel's restaurant in Yosemite — all places that emit a kind of old-school cool.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2023
As a youth, Antheil practiced the piano up to 20 hours per day, soaking his hands afterward in fishbowls of cold water to ease the swelling.
From Slate ● Nov. 28, 2011
Check off the punch list of items in this manifest: 1. a world governed by a race of wise elders, perched on high columns and with their desiccated faces in fishbowls; cf.
From Time ● Jun. 16, 2011
It is about the worlds we dream inside our fishbowls, helped by the weird reflections on the walls.
From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2011
While Vonetta and Fern charged to the counter lined with fishbowls of penny candy, I stood at the door and watched Danny the K push Ellis into the street and almost into a car.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
