n. A vertebrate which has gills and fins adapting it for living in the water.n. In zoology: Any branchiferous vertebrate with a complete cranium and a lyriform shoulder-girdle. In this sense, the leptocardians and myzonts are excluded, but the selachians are included with true Pisces.n. A branchiferous or teleostomous vertebrate with dermal plates or membrane-bones superadded to the primordial cranium and shoulder-girdle, and with the branchiæ free outwardly. The sturgeons as well as all the osseous fishes are included in the group thus defined.n. In popular language, any animal that lives entirely in the water; a swimming as distinguished from a flying or walking animal, including cetaceous mammals, batrachians, mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms, as well as fishes proper: commonly distinguished by some specifying word, as blackfish, shellfish, starfish. See these and other compounds.n. The meat of a fish or of fishes used as food.n. The codfish: so called specifically by Cape Cod and Cape Ann fishermen, in distinction from fish of other kinds, as mackerel, herring, etc.n. The zodiacal sign Pisces.n. Nautical: A purchase used to raise the flukes of an anchor up to the bill-board. Also called a fish-tackle.n. A long piece of timber or iron used to strengthen a mast or a yard when sprung.n. In joinery, etc., a piece secured alongside of another to strengthen or stiffen it.n. Fish that are or may be caught with bait.n. Fish having a more or less ossified skeleton: thus distinguished from cartilaginous fish. See cut under Esox.n. See coarse fish.n. In ichthyology, a fish inhabiting the sea near the shore and in water of moderate depth: thus contrasting with deep-sea fish and pelagic fish.n. The squid or cuttlefish.n. See also whitefish.To catch or attempt to catch fish; be employed in taking fish by any means, as by angling or drawing nets.To be arranged or adjusted so as to catch fish; bo capable of catching fish: as, the net or pound is fishing; the net was set, but was not fishing; the net fishes seven feet (that is, seven feet deep).To catch by means of any of the operations or processes of fishing: as, to fish minnows or lobsters.To attempt to catch fish in; try with any apparatus for catching fish, as a rod or net.To use in or for fishing: as, gill-nets are fished; an oysterman fishes his boat.To catch or lay hold of, in water, mud, or some analogous medium or position, as if by fishing; draw out or up; get or secure in any way with some difficulty or search, as if by angling.To search by dragging, raking, or sweeping.Nautical: To strengthen, as a weak spar, by lashing one or more pieces of wood or iron along the weak place.To hoist the flukes of, as an anchor, up to the bill-board.In joinery, to strengthen, as a piece of wood, by fastening another piece above or below it, and sometimes both.In railroading, to splice, as rails, with a fish-joint.To obtain by careful search or study or by artifice; elicit by pains or stratagem: as, to fish out a meaning from an obscure sentence, a secret from a person, or an admission from an adverse witness.To pull up or out from or as from some deep place, as if by fishing: as, the boy fished out a top from the depths of his pocket.n. A counter used in various games.n. The Southern Fish, Piscis Australis or Austrinus.n. A name sometimes applied to fishes having ocellated spots of color resembling auxiliary eyes.n. Chænobryttus gulosus, one of the sun-fishes found in fresh waters of the eastern United States.
