This salmon is a fish.
- The definition of a fish is an animal that lives in the water and breathes through gills.
An example of a fish is salmon.
- To fish is defined as to try and obtain information or to catch animals that live in the water, such as salmon.
- An example of fish is when you ask questions to try to find out a secret.
- An example of fish is when you try to catch salmon using a pole and bait.
MLA Style
"fish." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 August 2018. <http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish>.
APA Style
fish. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19th, 2018, from http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish
fish
noun
pl.- any of three classes (jawless, cartilaginous, and bony fishes) of coldblooded vertebrate animals living in water and having fins, permanent gills for breathing, and, usually, scales
- loosely any animal living in water only, as a dolphin, crab, or oyster: often used in comb.: shellfish, jellyfish
- the flesh of a fish used as food
- Informal a person thought of as like a fish, as in being easily lured by bait, lacking intelligence or emotion, etc.
Origin of fish
Middle English from Old English fisc, akin to German fisch, Dutch visch from Indo-European base an unverified form pisk- from source Classical Latin piscis- to catch or try to catch fish, or shrimps, lobsters, etc.
- to try to get something indirectly or by cunning: often with for
- to grope: often with for
Origin of fish
OE fiscian- to catch or try to catch fish, shrimps, etc. in: to fish a stream
- to get by or as by fishing
- to grope for, find, and bring to view: often with out or up: to fish a coin from one's pocket
- Naut. to pull (an old-fashioned anchor) to the gunwale, as from the cathead, preparatory to securing it
- of fish or fishing
- selling fish
bigger fish to fry
drink like a fish
fish in troubled waters
fish or cut bait
fish out
like a fish out of water
neither fish nor fowl
the Fishes
Fish
MLA Style
"fish." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 August 2018. <http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish>.
APA Style
fish. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19th, 2018, from http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish
fish
noun
pl. fish, or fish·es- Any of numerous cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates characteristically having fins, gills, and a streamlined body and including the bony fishes, such as catfishes and tunas, and the cartilaginous fishes, such as sharks and rays.
- Any of various jawless aquatic craniates, including the lampreys and hagfishes.
- The flesh of such animals used as food.
- Informal A person, especially one considered deficient in something: a poor fish.
verb
fished, fish·ing, fish·esverb
intransitive- To catch or try to catch fish.
- To look for something by feeling one's way; grope: fished in both pockets for a coin.
- To seek something in a sly or indirect way: fish for compliments.
verb
transitive- a. To catch or try to catch (fish).b. To catch or try to catch fish in: fish mountain streams.
- To catch or pull as if fishing: deftly fished the corn out of the boiling water.
Origin of fish
Middle English from Old English fisc
MLA Style
"fish." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 August 2018. <http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish>.
APA Style
fish. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19th, 2018, from http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish
fish
MLA Style
"fish." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 August 2018. <http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish>.
APA Style
fish. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19th, 2018, from http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish
(countable and uncountable, plural fish or fishes)
- (countable) A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.
- Salmon is a fish.
- God created all the fishes of the world.
- God created all the fish of the world.
- We have many fish in our aquarium.
- (possibly archaic) Any animal that lives exclusively in water.
- (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.
- The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.
- (countable) A period of time spent fishing.
- The fish at the lake didn't prove successful.
- (countable) An instance of seeking something.
- Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.
- (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain pairs of cards.
- (uncountable, derogatory, slang) A woman.
- (countable, slang) An easy victim for swindling.
- (countable, poker slang) A bad poker player.
- (countable, nautical) A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.
- (nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.
- (countable, nautical) A torpedo.
- (zoology) A polyphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:
- Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebra)
- Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)
- Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda)
- Class Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays
- Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fish.
The collective plural of fish is always fish in the UK; in the US, fishes is encountered as well. When referring to two or more kinds of fish, the plural is fishes.
From Middle English, from Old English fisc, from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz (compare West Frisian/Swedish fisk, Dutch vis, German Fisch), from Proto-Indo-European *pik̑sk̑os, *pisḱ- (compare Irish iasc, Latin piscis, Russian пискарь (piskárĭ) 'groundling', Sanskrit picchā 'calf (leg)', picchila, picchala 'slimy, slippery').
(third-person singular simple present fishes, present participle fishing, simple past and past participle fished)
- (intransitive) To try to catch fish, whether successfully or not.
- To try to find something other than fish in (a body of water).
- They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.
- (intransitive) To attempt to find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.
- Why are you fishing through my things?
- He was fishing for the keys in his pocket.
- (intransitive, followed by "around") To attempt to obtain information by talking to people.
- The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.
- (intransitive, cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
- (figuratively, followed by "for") To attempt to gain.
- The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.
- (nautical) To repair a spar or mast using a brace often called a fish (see NOUN above).
From Old English fiscian, from Proto-Germanic *fiskōną.
- (genetics) fluorescent in-situ hybridization; a technique used to identify whether a DNA sample has a specific sequence.
MLA Style
"fish." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 August 2018. <http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish>.
APA Style
fish. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19th, 2018, from http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish
fish - Computer Definition
See phishing.
MLA Style
"fish." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 August 2018. <http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish>.
APA Style
fish. (n.d.). Retrieved August 19th, 2018, from http://websters.yourdictionary.com/fish
