fishing Definition

fish
noun fish, fishes

1. Any cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate that has no legs, and typically possesses paired fins, breathes by means of gills, and has a bony or cartilaginous skeleton and a body covered with scales.
2. Any of various water-inhabiting creatures.

Example: shellfish
Example: jellyfish
3. The flesh of fish used as food. Compare flesh noun 2.
4. derog, colloq
A person.
Example: an odd fish
Example: a cold fish
5. astron, astrol.
Pisces.
Form: the Fish

verb fished, fishing

intr
1. To catch or try to catch fish.

Example: She was fishing all day
Thesaurus: cast, angle, trawl, troll.
2. To catch or try to catch fish in (a river, lake, etc).

Example: fish a river
intr
3. To search or grope.

Example: fished in his bag for a pen
Thesaurus: seek, hunt, search.
intr
4. To seek information, compliments, etc by indirect means.

Thesaurus: solicit, invite, angle for, bid for.
Form: fish for something (usually)

Idiom: drink like a fish

colloq
To be in the habit of drinking a lot of alcohol.
Thesaurus: imbibe, get drunk, become inebriated, tipple, drink.

Idiom: a fish out of water

Someone in an unaccustomed, unsuitable situation which makes them ill at ease.

Idiom: have other fish to fry

colloq
To have other, more important, things to do.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon fisc.

Phrasal Verb: fish something out

To retrieve it.

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fishing
noun

1. The sport or business of catching fish.
2. A fishing ground.