fish1
/fɪʃ
/- Comparable studies of fishes and other aquatic vertebrates are scarce, despite a wealth of neontological data.
- Snakes employ shivering thermogenesis, which acts to warm their eggs, amphipods actively ventilate the brood pouch, and fishes fan to increase water circulation.
- It seems that they don't know that the first vertebrates were fish.
- If drinking was to continue after the cooked food had been exhausted, dried meat and fish were served.
- You are, however, allowed to eat as much red meat, poultry, fish and fatty foods, like heavy cream, as you want.
- For a true taste of Croatian Adriatic cuisine seek out the tiny tavernas where you can eat superb local fish and sea food.
- Their attempt to soften the electorate's impression of her as a scientific cold fish is one of the few amusing spectacles in a grim political landscape.
- Perhaps every writer of fiction suspects himself or herself to be a cold fish at heart, a mere spectator of other people's joys and passions.
- She has a tendency to use quite clinical language - which masks deep emotions, but can make her look a bit of a cold fish on the page.
- There is no benefit from hanging an entire shrimp off a hook when fishing for coastal panfish.
- Fish of this size have been caught by anglers targeting the chub and also by anglers fishing for the sea trout.
- He and his girlfriend, Carolina, had gone fishing for the summer, and had turned their cellphone off.
Synonyms
- A friend of mine who fishes a very easy water has in the past few weeks landed 98 carp.
- Jack fished some fast water just upstream of Redscar wood known as Duck Island.
- Now, the final nail in the coffin, drastic cuts in the number of days our few remaining fishermen are allowed to fish our own waters.
- In response, I fished for my tiny silver cell phone and flipped it open.
- Then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, fishing a business card out of it.
- He pulled on his jacket and fished the keys out of his pocket.
Synonyms
- Every one was helpful and eager to practice their English, proud of their country, if not their politicians, always fishing for compliments.
- Joss, meanwhile, is just blatantly fishing for compliments.
- The first time I got naked with this guy I was dating, I went fishing for compliments and made a comment about a totally insignificant part of my body.
Synonyms
- Directed by the helicopter, nine people were fished out of the water and they told the rescue team that the boat had been taken over by terrorists.
- By the time help arrived, most of the parents had fished their children out of the blackened water.
- I fished the phone out of the water, and also my camera, and waded to the shore.
Synonyms
Usage
The normal plural of fish is fish (a shoal of fish; he caught two huge fish). The older form fishes is still used, when referring to different kinds of fish (freshwater fishes of the British Isles).
Phrases
all's fish that comes to the net
a big fish
a big fish in a small pond
drink like a fish
a fish out of water
have other (or bigger) fish to fry
like shooting fish in a barrel
neither fish nor fowl (nor good red herring)
there are plenty more fish in the sea
Derivatives
fishable
- Although fishable by Sunday the river levels were too high to allow the event being pegged on Saturday afternoon.
- The river has been above normal level for most of the week but is now falling back to a fishable condition.
- Once the river levels were back to a fishable condition, coarse and game anglers experienced some good fishing.
fishlike
- The cuticle may be left feeling extremely rough or in some cases the delicate cuticle fishlike scales may be permanently damaged or burned off.
- He provides a sketch of a creature with the head of an elephant, a fishlike body with a camel hump, four legs like a lion, and a forked tail like a fish.
- That's when I saw the spiny ridge that ran the length of her back to the fishlike tail that existed where her legs should have been.
Origin
Old English fisc (as a noun denoting any animal living exclusively in water), fiscian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vis, vissen and German Fisch, fischen.
A fish was originally any animal living exclusively in water, as distinct from the ‘birds of the air’, and the ‘beasts of the field’. In Christian art a fish is a symbol of Christ, and is often found in paintings in the underground catacombs of ancient Rome—for this reason modern Christians sometimes have a stylized fish on their car's number plate. The connection may go back to the first letters of the Greek words for ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’, which were read as ikhthus, Greek for ‘fish’, found in words such as ichthyologist (early 18th century) for someone who studies fish, and the fish-like dinosaur the ichthyosaur (mid 19th century). We have been eating fish fingers for more than 50 years. Their inventor Clarence Birdseye, founder of the Birds Eye food company, launched them in 1955. The idea of being a fish out of water, or a person in a completely unsuitable environment, is very old, going back to the days of Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote that ‘A monk when he is reckless [meaning ‘neglectful of his duty’] is like a fish that is waterless’. See also red, wife
Rhymes
fish2
/fɪʃ/Origin
Early 16th century: probably from French fiche, from ficher 'to fix', based on Latin figere.