Fish Definition

fĭsh

fished, fishes, fishing

noun

fishes

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.

Webster's New World

Any of various jawless aquatic craniates, including the lampreys and hagfishes.

American Heritage Medicine

Any animal living in water only, as a dolphin, crab, or oyster.

Shellfish, jellyfish.

Webster's New World

The flesh of a fish used as food.

Webster's New World

A person thought of as like a fish, as in being easily lured by bait, lacking intelligence or emotion, etc.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

verb

fished, fishes, fishing

To catch or try to catch fish, shrimps, etc. in.

To fish a stream.

Webster's New World

To look for something by feeling one's way; grope.

Fished in both pockets for a coin.

American Heritage

To try to get something indirectly or by cunning.

Webster's New World

To catch or try to catch fish, or shrimps, lobsters, etc.

Webster's New World

To grope.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
angle
tuna
trout
sole
snapper
smelt
shad
scup
scrod
poach (fish unlawfully)
ling
gudgeon
gill
eel
drail

adjective

Of fish or fishing.

Webster's New World

Selling fish.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

abbreviation

(genetics) Fluorescent in-situ hybridization; a technique used to identify whether a DNA sample has a specific sequence.

Wiktionary

idiom

fish or cut bait

To proceed with an activity or abandon it altogether.

American Heritage

like a fish out of water

Completely unfamiliar with one's surroundings or activity.

American Heritage

neither fish nor fowl

Having no specific characteristics; indefinite.

American Heritage

other fish to fry

Other matters to attend to:
He declined to come along to the movie, saying he had other fish to fry.

American Heritage

bigger fish to fry

other, more important things to attend to

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Fish

Noun

Singular:

fish

Plural:

fishes

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Fish

Origin of Fish

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').

From Wiktionary
From Old English fiscian, from Proto-Germanic *fiskōną.

From Wiktionary
Middle English from Old English fisc

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
French fiche (“peg, mark”).

From Wiktionary