FISH (fishes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: fishes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Fish mean? 

• FISH (noun)
  The noun FISH has 4 senses:

1. any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills

2. the flesh of fish used as food

3. (astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Pisces

4. the twelfth sign of the zodiac; the sun is in this sign from about February 19 to March 20

  Familiarity information: FISH used as a noun is uncommon.

• FISH (verb)
  The verb FISH has 2 senses:

1. seek indirectly

2. catch or try to catch fish or shellfish

  Familiarity information: FISH used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FISH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Context example:

in the living room there was a tank of colorful fish

Hypernyms ("fish" is a kind of...):

aquatic vertebrate (animal living wholly or chiefly in or on water)

Meronyms (parts of "fish"):

fishbone (a bone of a fish)

caudal fin; tail fin (the tail of fishes and some other aquatic vertebrates)

fin (organ of locomotion and balance in fishes and some other aquatic animals)

lateral line; lateral line organ (sense organs of fish and amphibians; believed to detect pressure changes in the water)

milt (seminal fluid produced by male fish)

roe (eggs of female fish)

fish scale (scale of the kind that covers the bodies of fish)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fish"):

bottom lurkers (a fish that lurks on the bottom of a body of water)

bottom-dweller; bottom-feeder (a fish that lives and feeds on the bottom of a body of water)

A. testudineus; Anabas testudineus; climbing perch (a small perch of India whose gills are modified to allow it to breathe air; has spiny pectoral fins that enable it to travel on land)

bony fish (any fish of the class Osteichthyes)

northern snakehead (a voracious freshwater fish that is native to northeastern China; can use fin to walk and can survive out of water for three days; a threat to American populations of fish)

spawner (a female fish at spawning time)

mouthbreeder (any of various fishes that carry their eggs and their young in their mouths)

young fish (a fish that is young)

rough fish (any fish useless for food or sport or even as bait)

food fish (any fish used for food by human beings)

game fish; sport fish (any fish providing sport for the angler)

fingerling (a young or small fish)

cartilaginous fish; chondrichthian (fishes in which the skeleton may be calcified but not ossified)

Holonyms ("fish" is a member of...):

Pisces (a group of vertebrates comprising both cartilaginous and bony fishes and sometimes including the jawless vertebrates; not used technically)

school; shoal (a large group of fish)

Derivation:

fish (catch or try to catch fish or shellfish)

fish (seek indirectly)

fishy (of or relating to or resembling fish)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The flesh of fish used as food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Context example:

they have a chef who specializes in fish

Hypernyms ("fish" is a kind of...):

food; solid food (any solid substance (as opposed to liquid) that is used as a source of nourishment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fish"):

smelt (small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water)

shad (bony flesh of herring-like fish usually caught during their migration to fresh water for spawning; especially of Atlantic coast)

salmon (flesh of any of various marine or freshwater fish of the family Salmonidae)

rock salmon (any of several coarse fishes (such as dogfish or wolffish) when used as food)

trout (flesh of any of several primarily freshwater game and food fishes)

alewife (flesh of shad-like fish abundant along the Atlantic coast or in coastal streams)

hake (the lean flesh of a fish similar to cod)

schrod; scrod (flesh of young Atlantic cod weighing up to 2 pounds; also young haddock and pollock; often broiled)

gray mullet; grey mullet; mullet (highly valued lean flesh of marine or freshwater mullet)

eel (the fatty flesh of eel; an elongate fish found in fresh water in Europe and America; large eels are usually smoked or pickled)

anchovy (tiny fishes usually canned or salted; used for hors d'oeuvres or as seasoning in sauces)

stockfish (fish cured by being split and air-dried without salt)

panfish (any of numerous small food fishes; especially those caught with hook and line and not available on the market)

haddock (lean white flesh of fish similar to but smaller than cod; usually baked or poached or as fillets sauteed or fried)

Derivation:

fish (catch or try to catch fish or shellfish)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Pisces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Fish; Pisces

Hypernyms ("Fish" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Domain category:

astrology; star divination (a pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moon)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The twelfth sign of the zodiac; the sun is in this sign from about February 19 to March 20

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Fish; Pisces; Pisces the Fishes

Instance hypernyms:

house; mansion; planetary house; sign; sign of the zodiac; star sign ((astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided)

• FISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fish    ... he / she / it fishes   
Past simple: fished   
Past participle: fished   
-ing form: fishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Seek indirectly

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

angle; fish

Context example:

fish for compliments

Hypernyms (to "fish" is one way to...):

look for; search; seek (try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

fish (any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Catch or try to catch fish or shellfish

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Context example:

I like to go fishing on weekends

Hypernyms (to "fish" is one way to...):

catch; grab; take hold of (take hold of so as to seize or restrain or stop the motion of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fish"):

prawn (fish for prawns)

still-fish (fish with the line and bait resting still or stationary in the water)

trawl (fish with trawlers)

shark (hunt shark)

net fish (fish with nets)

shrimp (fish for shrimp)

angle (fish with a hook)

brail (haul fish aboard with brails)

rail (fish with a handline over the rails of a boat)

scallop; scollop (fish for scallops)

seine (fish with a seine; catch fish with a seine)

crab (fish for crab)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

The men fish the area for animals
The men fish for animals in the area

Derivation:

fish (any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills)

fish (the flesh of fish used as food)

fisher (someone whose occupation is catching fish)

fishery (a workplace where fish are caught and processed and sold)

fishing (the act of someone who fishes as a diversion)

fishing (the occupation of catching fish for a living)

 Context examples 

He tells me that he is nearly a hundred, and that he was a sailor in the Greenland fishing fleet when Waterloo was fought.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Go home,” said the fish; “she is pope already.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I’ve whispered never a word; for old fat Louis’ll live the voyage out if the last mother’s son of yez go to the fishes.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Some signs, like Pisces, are comfortable making decisions in the absence of full information—you need to be more like the little fish.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Pike robbed him of half a fish one night, and gulped it down under the protection of Buck.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

E. rhusiopathiae is found in a variety of host animals including fish and swine as well as in feces and sewage.

(Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, NCI Thesaurus)

CoQ10 is fat-soluble (can dissolve in fats and oils) and is found in fatty fish, beef, soybeans, peanuts, and spinach.

(CoQ10, NCI Dictionary)

A class of professional or vocational positions of employment that involve farming, fishing or forestry.

(Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations, NCI Thesaurus)

As I should not have been much the wiser if I HAD looked at it, I declined, and said, “Never mind fish.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They are thin, flat cells that look like fish scales under a microscope.

(Cervical squamous cell carcinoma, NCI Dictionary)