fish
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: fĭsh
ipa: /fɪʃ/
ipa: /fɘʃ/
homophone: phish
homophone: ghoti
rhymes: -ɪʃ
Forms: form: fishes
form: fishing
form: fished
form: fished
Etymology: From Old English fiscian, from Proto-West Germanic *fiskōn, from Proto-Germanic *fiskōną.
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian fiskje (“to fish”), Dutch vissen (“to fish”), German fischen (“to fish”), Limburgish vésche, vèsse (“to fish”), Luxembourgish fëschen (“to fish”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fiske (“to fish”), Faroese, Icelandic and Swedish fiska (“to fish”), Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍉𐌽 (fiskōn, “to fish”).
Senses: examples: text: We went fishing for crabs by the pier.
text: She went to the river to fish for trout.
text: 19th c., anonymous, "The Bonny Ship the 'Diamond'"
It's cheer up, my lads, let your hearts never fail,
For the bonny ship the Diamond goes a-fishing for the whale.
text: Thou hast fished salmon a thousand times, and mightst have taken a lesson.
ref: 1828, Sir Walter Scott, chapter V, in The Fair Maid of Perth, page 133:
glosses: To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a body of water, or to collect coral or pearls from the bottom of the sea.
examples: text: They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.
glosses: To search (a body of water) for something other than fish.
examples: text: `What you need are frogs,' said the veteran. `Fish them at night. There's nothing like them on big cork floats.'
ref: 1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 40:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To use as bait when fishing.
examples: text: Why are you fishing through my things?
text: He was fishing for the keys in his pocket.
synonyms: rummage
glosses: To (attempt to) find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.
examples: text: The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.
text: The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.
text: Laoctonos is fishing for a compliment,
But ’tis his due. Yes, you have drunk more wine,
And shed more blood, than any man in Thebes.
ref: 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
glosses: To talk to people in an attempt to get them to say something, or seek to obtain something by artifice.
raw_tags: followed by "for" or "around for"
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
examples: text: […] the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars.
ref: 1970, James Henderson, The Frigates, an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815, Wordsworth, published 1998, page 143:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: 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).
examples: text: Found that the cause of the ship's having drifted on the night of the 19th, was from the bight of the chain span (used to fish the anchor,) having slipped between the shank and upper fluke, thereby preventing the lower fluke from opening […]
ref: 1860, Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, page 214:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To hoist the flukes of.
glosses: To draw or guide (a wire or cable) by means of fish tape.
Synonyms: sense: try to catch a fish
word: angle
sense: try to catch a fish
word: drop in a line
sense: try to find something
word: rifle
sense: try to find something
word: rummage
sense: attempt to gain (compliments, etc)
word: angle
Derived terms: don't fish off the company dock
fishable
fish down
fished out
fisher
fishery
fish for compliments
fishline
fishnet
fishnet stockings
fish one's wish
fish out
fish up
underfished
unfished
you don't fish off the company pier