: any of numerous cold-blooded strictly aquatic craniate vertebrates that include the bony fishes and usually the cartilaginous and jawless fishes and that have typically an elongated somewhat spindle-shaped body terminating in a broad caudal (see caudalsense 2) fin, limbs in the form of fins when present at all, and a 2-chambered heart by which blood is sent through thoracic gills to be oxygenated
freshwater fish
tropical fish
2
: the flesh of fish used as food
We're having fish for dinner.
3
a
: a person who is caught or is wanted (as in a criminal investigation)
Noun
We're having fish for dinner.
he's rather an odd fishVerb
We spent the afternoon fishing for trout.
They fished the stream all morning.
She was fishing around in her purse for her keys.
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Noun
Oyster reefs also create communities for other types of fish that can be caught and sold as food.—Noël Fletcher, Forbes.com, 26 June 2025 As an American neorealist, drawn to depict historic spiritual struggle, Burnett just can’t lie, which makes The Annihilation of Fish an awkward presentation of the discordant elements in Hollywood race ideology.—Armond White, National Review, 25 June 2025
Verb
For months after the killings, police followed Weger, a young lodge dishwasher who had fished and hiked in the park most of his life.—Christy Gutowski, Chicago Tribune, 24 June 2025 The pair once fished together in New York, and Cuomo visited Lamont in Hartford.—Mark Pazniokas, Hartford Courant, 24 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for fish
Word History
Etymology
Noun and Verb
Middle English, from Old English fisc; akin to Old High German fisc fish, Latin piscis
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
: a water-dwelling animal—usually used in combination
starfish
cuttlefish
b
: a cold-blooded vertebrate animal with a typically long scaly tapering body, limbs developed as fins, and a vertical tail fin that lives and breathes in water
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