Noun

Singular fish

Plural collectively (UK) fish or (US) and when referring to two or more kinds fishes or informally fishies

fish (collectively (UK) fish or (US) and when referring to two or more kinds fishes or informally fishies)

1. (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.

2. (collectively) Plural form of fish.

   We have many fish in our aquarium.

3. (possibly archaic) Any vertebrate that lives in water and cannot live outside it.
4. (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.

   The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.

5. (countable) A period of time spent fishing.

   The fish at the lake didn't prove successful.

6. (countable) An instance of seeking something.

   Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.

7. (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain pairs of cards.
8. (uncountable, derogatory, slang) Women.
9. (slang) An easy victim for swindling.
10. (nautical) A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.

Synonyms

• (card game): go fish

Derived terms

• big fish in a small pond
• bony fish
• cold fish
• dragonfish
• drink like a fish
• fish and chips
• fish bowl/fishbowl
• fishbrain
• fishcake
• fish finger
• fishful
• fishgig
• fish hook/fishhook
• fishkill
• fish ladder, fishway
• fishless
• fishlike
• fishmeal
• fishmonger

• fishmoth
• fish out of water
• fish paste/fishpaste
• fish pond/fishpond
• fishpound
• fishpox
• fishroom
• fish sauce
• fishskin
• fishskin disease
• fish slice
• fish supper
• fishtail
• fish tank/fishtank
• fish tape
• fishwife
• fishwoman
• fishworm
• fishy

• give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
• goatfish
• goldfish
• have other fish to fry
• like shooting fish in a barrel
• jellyfish
• lumpfish
• overfish
• shellfish
• silverfish
• starfish
• neither fish nor fowl
• surgeonfish
• there's plenty more fish in the sea
• tuna fish

A fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Most fish are ectothermic (or cold-blooded). Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. Fish can be found in high mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) and in the deepest ocean depths (e.g., gulpers and anglerfish).

Food prepared from fish is also called fish, and is an important human food source. Commercial and subsistence fishers "hunt" them in wild fisheries (see fishing) or "farm" them in ponds or in cages in the ocean (see aquaculture). They are also caught by recreational fishers and raised by fishkeepers, and are exhibited in public aquaria. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, and as the subjects of art, books and movies.

Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold blooded, covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins.

Sourced

• Piscem natare doces
  • Translation: You're teaching a fish to swim.
  • Anonymous Latin saying

• Fish and guests in three days are stale.
  • John Lyly, Euphues (1579)

• Fish not, with this melancholy bait, For this fool-gudgeon, this opinion.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, sc. i

• A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, sc. iii

• Bait the hook well: this fish will bite.
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, sc. iii

• What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell.
  • William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act II, sc. ii

• I am, out of the ladies' company, like a fish out of water.
  • Thomas Shadwell, A True Widow, Act III, sc. i (1679)

• It was always the biggest fish I caught that got away.
  • Eugene Field, Our Biggest Fish, st. 2

• Only the gamefish swims upstream, But the sensible fish swims down.
  • Ogden Nash, When You Say That, Smile

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Thu Dec 10 21:49:25 2009