Word: fish Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ (“fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *fisk, from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz (“fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *piskós (“fish”). Cognates Cognate with Yola wish (“fish”), North Frisian fasch, fask, Fesk (“fish”), Saterland Frisian Fisk (“fish”), West Frisian fisk (“fish”), Cimbrian biss, visch, viss (“fish”), Dutch vis (“fish”), Dutch Low Saxon and Mòcheno visch (“fish”), German Fisch (“fish”), German Low German Fösch (“fish”), Luxembourgish Fësch (“fish”), Yiddish פֿיש (fish, “fish”), Danish, Elfdalian, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fisk (“fish”), Faroese and Icelandic fiskur (“fish”), Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (fisks, “fish”), Crimean Gothic fisct (“fish”). Compare Irish iasc (“fish”), Latin piscis (“fish”). Pronunciation: /ˈfɪʃ/, /ˈfɪ̝ʃ/, /ˈfɘʃ/ 1. A typically cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills; any vertebrate that is not a tetrapod. Labels: countable Example: Salmon is a fish. Example: The fishmonger sells fishes from all over the world. 2. Any vertebrate, including tetrapods. Labels: countable, uncountable 3. Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water. Labels: archaic, broadly, countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me. 4. Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water. Labels: archaic, broadly, countable, uncountable 5. Cod; codfish. Labels: Newfoundland, countable, uncountable 6. The flesh of the fish used as food. Labels: uncountable Example: The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta. Example: Though Lena is a vegetarian, she doesn't have any problem with eating fish. 7. An aquatic or semiaquatic animal suitable for consumption during fasting on Fridays during Lent. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Since the semi-aquatic beaver was a skilled swimmer, the Church declared it to be a fish for dietary purposes. Example: Throughout the Catholic Church's long history, archbishops and other prominent church leaders have made numerous declarations about which animals can be considered "fish for the purposes of Lent, even if those animals have virtually no similarities to fish in a scientific sense. 8. 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. Labels: uncountable 9. An easy victim for swindling. Labels: countable, slang 10. A bad poker player. Compare shark (a good poker player). Labels: countable, slang 11. A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship. Labels: countable 12. A purchase used to fish the anchor. Labels: countable, uncountable 13. A torpedo (self-propelled explosive device). Labels: countable, slang Example: The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck. Example: As we came off patrol we had some torpedoes fired at us by an enemy submarine but we dived out of the way. About April 10 we fired our fish in two salvoes at a convoy. 14. The thirty-fourth Lenormand card. Labels: countable, uncountable 15. A (feminine) woman. (See also fishy.) Labels: derogatory, positive, slang, sometimes, uncountable 16. A new (usually vulnerable) prisoner. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: When a young male enters the prison system he is looked over and is labeled a FISH. 17. A male homosexual; a gay man. Labels: Jamaica, countable, derogatory, offensive, uncountable Example: Him father is a fish so mi know say it's sprat dat Example: Bere gunman deh ya we nuh fren fish (hey bwoy) 18. A drag queen or transgender woman who looks like a cisgender woman. Labels: countable, uncountable 19. A spaceship. Labels: countable, rare, uncountable