phished; phishing; phishes
: to trick (an Internet user) into revealing personal or confidential information which can then be used illicitly
"Typically how it happens is somebody would break into a crypto exchange, like Coinbase, for example," [Alan Mislove, professor of computer science at Northeastern] says. "But another common way is that the hacker would attempt to phish users to trick them into giving up their password."—
Tanner Stening
Tanner Stening
also
: to acquire (an Internet user's personal or confidential information) through trickery (such as the use of deceptive email messages or websites)
… cold calling is … a way scammers can phish information from consumers. —L'Observateur (La Place, Louisiana)
L'Observateur (La Place, Louisiana) Examples of phish in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
And as long as attackers can still phish or steal a user’s password, much of the benefit of passkeys is undermined.
—Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 28 Aug. 2025
When available, passkeys (face/fingerprint + device) beat passwords because there’s nothing useful for criminals to steal or phish.
—Michael Cannivet, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025
That’s because Scattered Spider has also been known to send fake SMS text messages impersonating login systems to phish employees.
—Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 27 June 2025
These accounts may also be bots programmed to phish for details or direct you to scam pages.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 June 2025
These links are designed to phish for personal information, distribute malware, or trick recipients into financial scams.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 12 Dec. 2024
Nevertheless, Khudaverdyan continued to run his phone-unlocking business by creating various ways to phish T-Mobile employees.
—Michael Kan, PCMAG, 2 Aug. 2022
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Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 28 Aug. 2025
When available, passkeys (face/fingerprint + device) beat passwords because there’s nothing useful for criminals to steal or phish.
—Michael Cannivet, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2025
That’s because Scattered Spider has also been known to send fake SMS text messages impersonating login systems to phish employees.
—Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 27 June 2025
These accounts may also be bots programmed to phish for details or direct you to scam pages.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 June 2025
These links are designed to phish for personal information, distribute malware, or trick recipients into financial scams.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 12 Dec. 2024
Nevertheless, Khudaverdyan continued to run his phone-unlocking business by creating various ways to phish T-Mobile employees.
—Michael Kan, PCMAG, 2 Aug. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Phish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phish. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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