fish

noun22

1. •
   a kind of animal that swims and breathes under water and cannot live out of it

   • Salmon is a fish.
   • The fishmonger sells fishes from all over the world.
2. •
   (Newfoundland) Cod; codfish.
3. •
   The flesh of the fish used as food.

   • The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.
   • Though Lena is a vegetarian, she doesn't have any problem with eating fish.
4. •
   (slang) An easy victim for swindling.
5. •
   (slang) A bad poker player. Compare shark (a good poker player).
6. •
   (slang) A new (usually vulnerable) prisoner.

   • When a young male enters the prison system he is looked over and is labeled a FISH. — 1986
7. •
   A period of time spent fishing.

   • The fish at the lake didn't prove successful.
8. •
   An instance of seeking something.

   • Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.
9. •
   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.
10. •
    (slang) A torpedo (self-propelled explosive device).

    • The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck. — 1977
11. •
    Any vertebrate, including tetrapods.
12. •
    An aquatic or semiaquatic animal suitable for consumption during fasting on Fridays during Lent.

    • Since the semi-aquatic beaver was a skilled swimmer, the Church declared it to be a fish for dietary purposes. — 2017
13. •
    (slang, offensive) A (feminine) woman. (See also fishy.)
14. •
    (offensive) A male homosexual; a gay man.

    • Him father is a fish so mi know say it's sprat dat — 2007
15. •
    A drag queen or transgender woman who looks like a cisgender woman.
16. •
    A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.
17. •
    A purchase used to fish the anchor.
18. •
    (rare) A spaceship.
19. •
    The thirty-fourth Lenormand card.
20. •
    (no longer used) Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water.

    • 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. — 1774
21. •
    (no longer used) Now used in combination: (e.g., starfish, cuttlefish, jellyfish, etc).
22. •
    (no longer used) A counter, used in various games.

verb9

1. •
   To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a body of water, or to collect coral or pearls from the bottom of the sea.

   • We went fishing for crabs by the pier.
   • She went to the river to fish for trout.
2. •
   To search (a body of water) for something other than fish.

   • They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.
3. •
   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. •
   To talk to people in an attempt to get them to say something, or seek to obtain something by artifice.

   • The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.
   • The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.
5. •
   Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
6. •
   To draw or guide (a wire or cable) by means of fish tape.
7. •
   To use as bait when fishing.

   • `What you need are frogs,' said the veteran. `Fish them at night. There's nothing like them on big cork floats.' — 1983
8. •
   To repair (a spar or mast) by fastening a beam or other long object (often called a fish) over the damaged part (see Noun above).

   • […] the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars. — 1970
9. •
   To hoist the flukes of.

noun1

1. •
   Acronym of fluorescent in situ hybridization, a molecular cytogenetic technique used to identify whether a DNA sample has a specific sequence.