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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Fish

Fish, n.

noun

n.; pl. FISH'ES, instead of which the singular is often used collectively. [A.-S., O. Sax., & O. H. Ger. fisc, N. H. Ger. fisch, M. H. Ger. & D. fisch, Icel. fiskr, Sw. & Dan. fisk, Goth. fisks, allied to Lat. piscis, W. pysg, Armor. pesk, Ir. iasg.]

Sense 1. An animal that lives in water.

Sense 2. (Zool.) An oviparous, vertebrate animal having a covering of scales or plates, and breathing by means of gills or branchiæ, and living almost entirely in the water.

☞ The class of fishes is divided into,—

Sense 1. The Branchiostoma, or Amphioxus, having a thin, lanceolate, translucent body, without a central heart or distinct brain, and without special organs of sense; as the lancelet.

Sense 2. The Cyclostomata, or Marsipobranchii, having a long, eel-like body, a cartilaginous skeleton, and a sucking mouth; as the lamprey.

Sense 3. The Plagiostoma, or Elasmobranchii, or cartilaginous fishes, having a mouth under, instead of at the end of, the body, with fixed branchial arches opening separately into the pharynx, and generally with separate external openings, a cartilaginous skeleton, a heterocercal tail, and a comparatively naked skin; as the shark or ray.

Sense 4. The Teleostia, or truly osseous fishes, with movable branchial arches, a homocercal tail, and one gill-opening; as the shad, perch, or eel.

Sense 5. The Ganoidia, generally having enamel-covered plates or scales over the head and part of the body, a distinct ventricle, and a reptile-like condition of the lung or air-bladder; as the garpike or sturgeon.

Sense 6. The Dipnoi or Lepidota (considered batrachian by some), having both gills and lungs well developed; as the lepidosiren.

Another classification, founded on the character of the scales, has been proposed by Agassiz, viz., into the Cycloides, where the scales are single laminae, and have smooth outline edge; the Ctenoides, where the posterior free edge of the scale is toothed; the Placoides, where the enamel is distributed over the skin, either in grains or in masses with projecting spines; the Ganoides, where the scales fit together usually in mosaic, and are composed of layers of bone coated with enamel.

Sense 3. The flesh of fish, used as food.

Sense 4. A counter, used in various games.

Sense 5. (Naut.) (a.) A purchase used to raise the flukes of an anchor up to the gunwale;—called also fish-block. Totten. (b.) A long piece of timber, which bellies out in the form of a fish, and is used to strengthen a lower mast, or a yard when sprung or damaged. Francis.

☞ In composition, fish sometimes signifies that what it is compounded with is shaped like a fish.

Fish, v. i.

verbintransitive

[imp. & p. p. FISHED (fisht); p. pr. & vb. n. FISHING.]

  1. To attempt to catch fish; to be employed in taking fish, by any means, as by angling or drawing nets.
  2. To seek to obtain by artifice, or indirectly to seek to draw forth; as, to fish for compliments. W. Scott.

Fish, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [A-S. fiscian, O. H. Ger. fiscōn, M. H. Ger. vischen, Goth. fiskōn.]

  1. To catch; to draw out or up; as, to fish up a human body when sunk; to fish an anchor.
  2. To search by raking or sweeping. Swift.
  3. (Naut.) To strengthen, as a mast or yard, with a piece of timber.
  4. (Railway Engin.) To splice, as rails, with a fish-joint.
  5. To try with a fishing-rod; as, to fish a stream. [Rare.] Thackeray.