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Webster 1913 Edition

Fish

Fish

(fĭsh)
,
Noun.
[F.
fiche
peg, mark, fr.
fisher
to fix.]
A counter, used in various games.

Fish

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Fishes
(fĭsh′ĕz)
, or collectively,
Fish
.
[OE.
fisch
,
fisc
,
fis
, AS.
fisc
; akin to D.
visch
, OS. & OHG.
fisk
, G.
fisch
, Icel.
fiskr
, Sw. & Dan.
fisk
, Goth.
fisks
, L.
piscis
, Ir.
iasg
. Cf.
Piscatorial
. In some cases, such as
fish
joint,
fish
plate, this word has prob. been confused with
fish
, fr. F.
fiche
a peg.]
1.
A name loosely applied in popular usage to many animals of diverse characteristics, living in the water.
2.
(Zool.)
An oviparous, vertebrate animal usually having fins and a covering scales or plates. It breathes by means of gills, and lives almost entirely in the water. See
Pisces
.
☞ The true fishes include the Teleostei (bony fishes), Ganoidei, Dipnoi, and Elasmobranchii or Selachians (sharks and skates). Formerly the leptocardia and Marsipobranciata were also included, but these are now generally regarded as two distinct classes, below the fishes.
3.
pl.
The twelfth sign of the zodiac; Pisces.
4.
The flesh of fish, used as food.
5.
(Naut.)
(a)
A purchase used to fish the anchor.
(b)
A piece of timber, somewhat in the form of a fish, used to strengthen a mast or yard.
☞ Fish is used adjectively or as part of a compound word; as, fish line, fish pole, fish spear, fish-bellied.
Age of Fishes
.
See under
Age
,
Noun.
, 8.
–
Fish ball
,
fish (usually salted codfish) shared fine, mixed with mashed potato, and made into the form of a small, round cake.
[U.S.]
–
Fish bar
.
Same as
Fish plate
(below).
–
Fish beam
(Mech.)
,
a beam one of whose sides (commonly the under one) swells out like the belly of a fish.
Francis.
–
Fish crow
(Zool.)
,
a species of crow (
Corvus ossifragus
), found on the Atlantic coast of the United States. It feeds largely on fish.
–
Fish culture
,
the artifical breeding and rearing of fish; pisciculture.
–
Fish davit
.
See
Davit
.
–
Fish day
,
a day on which fish is eaten; a fast day.
–
Fish duck
(Zool.)
,
any species of merganser.
–
Fish fall
,
the tackle depending from the fish davit, used in hauling up the anchor to the gunwale of a ship.
–
Fish garth
,
a dam or weir in a river for keeping fish or taking them easily.
–
Fish glue
.
See
Isinglass
.
–
Fish joint
,
a joint formed by a plate or pair of plates fastened upon two meeting beams, plates, etc., at their junction; – used largely in connecting the rails of railroads.
–
Fish kettle
,
a long kettle for boiling fish whole.
–
Fish ladder
,
a dam with a series of steps which fish can leap in order to ascend falls in a river.
–
Fish line
, or
Fishing line
,
a line made of twisted hair, silk, etc., used in angling.
–
Fish louse
(Zool.)
,
any crustacean parasitic on fishes, esp. the parasitic Copepoda, belonging to
Caligus
,
Argulus
, and other related genera. See
Branchiura
.
–
Fish maw
(Zool.)
,
the stomach of a fish; also, the air bladder, or sound.
–
Fish meal
,
fish desiccated and ground fine, for use in soups, etc.
–
Fish oil
,
oil obtained from the bodies of fish and marine animals, as whales, seals, sharks, from cods’ livers, etc.
–
Fish owl
(Zool.)
,
a fish-eating owl of the Old World genera
Scotopelia
and
Ketupa
, esp. a large East Indian species (
K. Ceylonensis
).
–
Fish plate
,
one of the plates of a fish joint.
–
Fish pot
,
a wicker basket, sunk, with a float attached, for catching crabs, lobsters, etc.
–
Fish pound
,
a net attached to stakes, for entrapping and catching fish; a weir.
[Local, U.S.]
Bartlett.
–
Fish slice
,
a broad knife for dividing fish at table; a fish trowel.
–
Fish slide
,
an inclined box set in a stream at a small fall, or ripple, to catch fish descending the current.
Knight.
–
Fish sound
,
the air bladder of certain fishes, esp. those that are dried and used as food, or in the arts, as for the preparation of isinglass.
–
Fish story
,
a story which taxes credulity; an extravagant or incredible narration.
[Colloq. U.S.]
Bartlett.
–
Fish strainer
.
(a)
A metal colander, with handles, for taking fish from a boiler.
(b)
A perforated earthenware slab at the bottom of a dish, to drain the water from a boiled fish.
–
Fish trowel
,
a fish slice.
–
Fish weir
or
Fish wear
,
a weir set in a stream, for catching fish.
–
Neither fish nor flesh
,
Neither fish nor fowl
(
Fig.
),
neither one thing nor the other.

Fish

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Fished
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Fishing
.]
1.
To attempt to catch fish; to be employed in taking fish, by any means, as by angling or drawing a net.
2.
To seek to obtain by artifice, or indirectly to seek to draw forth;
as, to
fish
for compliments
.
Any other
fishing
question.
Sir W. Scott.

Fish

,
Verb.
T.
[OE.
fischen
,
fisken
,
fissen
, AS.
fiscian
; akin to G.
fischen
, OHG.
fisc[GREEK]n
, Goth.
fisk[GREEK]n
. See
Fish
the animal.]
1.
To catch; to draw out or up;
as, to
fish
up an anchor
.
2.
To search by raking or sweeping.
Swift.
3.
To try with a fishing rod; to catch fish in;
as, to
fish
a stream
.
Thackeray.
4.
To strengthen (a beam, mast, etc.), or unite end to end (two timbers, railroad rails, etc.) by bolting a plank, timber, or plate to the beam, mast, or timbers, lengthwise on one or both sides. See
Fish joint
, under
Fish
,
Noun.
To fish the anchor
.
(Naut.)
See under
Anchor
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Fish

FISH

,
Noun.
[L. piscis.]
1.
An animal that lives in water. Fish is a general name for a class of animals subsisting in water, which were distributed by Linne into six orders. They breathe by means of gills, swim by the aid of fins, and are oviparous. Some of them have the skeleton bony, and others cartilaginous. Most of the former have the opening of the gills closed by a peculiar covering, called the gill-lid; many of the latter have no gill-lid, and are hence said to breathe through apertures. Cetaceous animals, as the whale and dolphin, are, in popular language, called fishes, and have been so classed by some naturalists; but they breathe by lungs, and are viviparous, like quadrupeds. The term fish has been also extended to other aquatic animals, such as shell-fish, lobsters, &c. We use fish, in the singular, for fishes in general or the whole race.
2.
The flesh of fish, used as food. But we usually apply flesh to land animals.

FISH

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To attempt to catch fish; to be employed in taking fish, by any means, as by angling or drawing nets.
2.
To attempt or seek to obtain by artifice, or indirectly to seek to draw forth; as, to fish for compliments.

FISH

, v.t.
1.
To search by raking or sweeping; as, to fish the jakes for papers.
2.
In seamanship, to strengthen, as a mast or yard, with a piece of timber.
3.
To catch; draw out or up; as, to fish up a human body when sunk; to fish an anchor.

FISH

, n.
1.
In ships, a machine to hoist and draw up the flukes of an anchor, towards the top of the bow.
2.
A long piece of timber, used to strengthen a lower mast or a yard, when sprung or damaged.

Definition 2024

Fish

Fish

See also: fish, The Fish, and FISH

English

Proper noun

Fish

  1. A surname​.

fish

fish

See also: Fish, FISH, and The Fish

English

Picture dictionary
fishfish
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carp
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carp

eel
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eel

goldfish
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goldfish

herring
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herring

mackerel
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mackerel

salmon
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salmon

sardine
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sardine

shark
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shark

trout
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trout

tuna
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tuna

Noun

fish ‎(countable and uncountable, plural fish or fishes)

  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.
    The Sun Mother created all the fishes of the world.
    The Sun Mother created all the fish of the world.
    We have many fish in our aquarium.
  2. (possibly archaic) Any animal that lives exclusively in water.
    • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː
      I see that it is good; now make we man to our likeness, that shall be keeper of mere & leas(ow), of fowls and fish in flood.
    • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature, Volume IV:
      The whale, the limpet, the tortoise and the oyster… as men have been willing to give them all the name of fishes, it is wisest for us to conform.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
      Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.
  3. (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.
    • 2012 March, “Flexing your brain”, in Consumer Reports on Health, volume 24, number 3, page 9:
      Include low-mercury fish in your diet (such as salmon) and eat at least five servings a day of fruit and vegetables, especially dark leafy greens, broccoli, and cauliflower. Avoid saturated and trans fats, which may hasten brain aging.
    The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.
  4. (countable) A period of time spent fishing.
    The fish at the lake didn't prove successful.
  5. (countable) An instance of seeking something.
    Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.
  6. (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain cards in pairs or sets of four (depending on the variation), by asking the other players for cards of a particular rank.
  7. (uncountable, derogatory, slang) A woman.
  8. (countable, slang) An easy victim for swindling.
  9. (countable, poker slang) A bad poker player. Compare shark (a good poker player).
  10. (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.
  11. (nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.
  12. (countable, nautical) A torpedo.
    • 1977, Richard O'Kane, Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang, Ballantine Books (2003), page 344:
      The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck.
  13. (zoology) A paraphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:
    1. Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebra)
    2. Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)
    3. Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda)
      1. Class Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays
      2. Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fish.
Usage notes

The collective plural of fish is normally fish in the UK, except in archaic texts where fishes may be encountered; in the US, fishes is encountered as well. When referring to two or more kinds of fish, the plural is fishes.

Synonyms
Related terms
Derived terms
Hyponyms
Translations
See also
  • Appendix:Fish

Etymology 2

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

Verb

fish ‎(third-person singular simple present fishes, present participle fishing, simple past and past participle fished)

  1. (intransitive) To try to catch fish, whether successfully or not.
    She went to the river to fish for trout.
  2. (transitive) To try to find something other than fish in (a body of water).
    They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.
  3. (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.
  4. (intransitive, followed by "around") To attempt to obtain information by talking to people.
    The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.
  5. (intransitive, cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
  6. (transitive, figuratively, followed by "for") To attempt to gain.
    The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.
  7. (nautical) To repair a spar or mast using a brace often called a fish (see Noun above).
    • 1970, James Henderson, The Frigates, an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815, Wordsworth (1998), page 143:
      […] the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars.
Synonyms
  • (try to catch a fish): angle, drop in a line
  • (try to find something): rifle, rummage
  • (attempt to gain (compliments, etc)): angle
Derived terms
Translations
transitive: to try to find something in a body of water
  • Russian: рыба́чить (ru) impf ‎(rybáčitʹ), лови́ть ры́бу impf ‎(lovítʹ rýbu)
  • Walloon: rapexhî (wa)

Etymology 3

Borrowing from French fiche ‎(“peg, mark”).

Noun

fish ‎(plural fishes)

  1. (obsolete) A counter, used in various games.

References

  • fish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Etymology

From fish in its various senses.

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