Fish sb.¹

Forms: 1–2 fisc, 3 Orm. fissk, 3–4 fis(s(e, fix, (4 fizs), south. viss, vyss, 3–5 fich, 5–6 fych(e, 3–5 fissh(e, (3 fishsh, fischsch), 4–6 fysch(e, -ssh(e, (6 fiszsh), 5–6 fysh(e, 4–6 fishe, 3– fish. [Com. Teut.; OE. fisc str. masc. = OFris. fisk, OS. fisc (Du. visch), OHG. fisc (MHG. visch, Ger. fisch), ON. fiskr (Sw. and Da. fisk), Goth. fisks:—OTeut. *fisko-z:—pre-Teut. *pisko-s, cogn. with L. piscis and OIr. iasc (:—*peiskos).]

  I.  1. In popular language, any animal living exclusively in the water; primarily denoting vertebrate animals provided with fins and destitute of limbs; but extended to include various cetaceans, crustaceans, mollusks, etc. In modern scientific language (to which popular usage now tends to approximate) restricted to a class of vertebrate animals, provided with gills throughout life, and cold-blooded; the limbs, if present, are modified into fins, and supplemented by unpaired median fins.

Except in the compound shell-fish, the word is no longer commonly applied in educated use to invertebrate animals.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, viii. 9. Fuglas heofenes & fiscas saes.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 129. Alle þe fiscas þe swummen in þere se.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 177. Fishshes and fugeles.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 159.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 10/302. A fair ȝwater with grete fischsches.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 180.

1485.  Caxton, Charles the Grete, 205. Therin was an abysme or swolowe of water, In whyche were founden after, fysshes alle blacke.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Kings iv. 33. He talked also of catell, of foules, of wormes, of fiszshes.

1653.  Walton, Angler, 179. The Pearch is a very good, and a very bold biting fish, he is one of the fishes of prey, that, like the Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, not in his throat, and dare venture to kill and devour another fish.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. i. (1723), 153. Stranding Whales likewise, and other great Fishes, and leaving them, at its Return, upon dry Land.

1719.  W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 334. Shells of Fishes, known by the Name of Cowries amongst Merchants, or of Blackamore’s Teeth among other Persons, do to all Intents and Purposes answer the End of Money.

1726.  Gay, Fables, I. iv. 37.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., IV. 3. No two animals are more unlike each other than the whale and the limpet, the tortoise and the oyster…. As they have been willing to give them all from their abode the name of fishes, it is wisest in us to conform.

1842.  H. Miller, The Old Red Sandstone, iii. (ed. 2), 68. Fishes seem to have been the master existences of five succeeding formations, ere the age of reptiles began.

  b.  collect. sing. used for pl.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 9395 (Cott.).

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xiii. 57. Criste apperde til his disciples after his resurreccioun fischand in þis see and filled þaire nettes full of fisch.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, F vij a. A scoll of ffysh.

1556.  Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 48. Herrynge and other fyche that was tane on the see.

1563.  Myrr. Mag., Somerset, xxiii. For the fyshe casting forth his net.

1611.  Bible, Num. xi. 22. Shal all the fish of the sea bee gathered together for them, to suffice them?

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 400.

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, XXI. 135.

1780.  Cowper, Lett. to Mrs. Newton, 2 June. When I write to you, you answer me in fish. I return you many thanks for the mackerel and lobster.

1802–3.  trans. Pallas’ Trav. (1812), II. 132. Such port is frequented by fish of passage, especially by mackarels.

1808.  Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., V. 384. Herrings, as well as mackerel, cod-fish, whitings, haddocks, and some others, may with propriety be called fish of passage; for they bear a strong analogy to birds of that description, both from their social disposition and their immense numbers.

  c.  phr. A nice or pretty kettle of fish (colloq.): an awkward state of things, a ‘muddle.’ To be or feel like a fish out of water: to be or feel out of one’s element. Drunk (dull, mute) as a fish: very drunk (etc.). To drink like a fish: to drink excessively. To feed the fishes: (a) to meet one’s death by drowning; (b) to be sea-sick. All is fish that comes to or † in (his) net: i.e., nothing comes amiss to him, he turns everything to account.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccccxvi. 727. Suche as came after toke all, and left nothyng behynde them, for all was fysshe that came to net.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, VI. xii. 636. The Arabians out of the Desarts, are as Fishes out of the Water.

c. 1620.  Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 48.

1654.  Gataker, Disc. Apol., 7. He is as mute as a fish.

1700.  Congreve, Way of World, IV. ix. Thou art both as drunk and as mute as a fish.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Ggg ij. Faire toutes Voiles blanches, to cruise as a pirate; to make all fish that comes to the net.

1837.  Hood, Drinking Song, xi.

1840.  Marryat, Poor Jack, xi. You’re as mute as a fish.

1865.  J. G. Bertram, The Harvest of the Sea (1873), 228. My personal interest is not only in trawl-fishing, but hook-and-line, seined-net, drift-net, and other kinds; for, being a commission agent, it is all fish that comes to my net.

1870.  H. Meade, Ride N. Zealand, 313. His first act was to appease the fishes, whose sanctum he had invaded, by feeding them most liberally.

1886.  Baring Gould, Court Royal, vi. The lawyer felt that, although he had moved in all sorts of society, he was as a fish out of water here.

1889.  Bridges, Feast of Bacchus, IV.

  d.  In other proverbial expressions.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1562), D ij b.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, I. iii.

1630.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., I. 117/2. The Prouerbe, sayes, If you sweare you shall catch no fish.

1710.  Brit. Apollo, III. No. 29, 3/2. ’Tis good Fish, if it were but Caught.

1857.  Trollope, Three Clerks, xvi. There were still as good fish in the sea as had ever yet been caught out of it.

  † e.  in the quasi-oath God’s fish! (more commonly ODDS-FISH).

c. 1728.  Earl Ailesbury, Mem., II. 649. Gods fish! when two rogues fall out, their master then is like to know the truth.

  2.  In combination with various qualifying words, as lantern-, lump-, monk-, pipe-, rock-, toad-, whistle-, wolf-: see those words. Blubber-fish, fish yielding blubber, as the whale, porpoise, etc. Royal-fish, also fish-royal (see quots.). Also ANGEL-, FLAT-, FLYING-, GOLD-, JELLY-, SHELL-, SUN-, SWORD-FISH.

1756.  R. Rolt, Dict. Trade & Comm., Royal fish, are dolphins and sturgeans; as also in France, are salmon and trout; so called, because they belong to the King, when cast upon the sea-shore…. Blubber-fish are whales, porpoises, tunnies, sea-calves, and other fat fish.

1776.  Customs Manor of Epworth, in Stonehouse, Axholme (1839), 145. When any fish royal be taken in the river of Trent, within this Manor, between full sea and full sea, it belongs to the Lord of the Manor.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Royal Fish, whale and sturgeon.

  3.  a. Applied fig. to a person (also collect. to persons) whom it is desirable to ‘catch’ or ‘hook.’

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 116. The subtle devil, who immediately found us proper fish for her hook, gave us the kindest words in the world.

1753.  Foote, Eng. in Paris, II. 1799, I. 42. The fish [a rich young booby] is hook’d.

1885.  Boy’s Own Paper, 5 Sept., 771/1. People would think he was an easy fish to catch.

  b.  Used (with prefixed adj.) unceremoniously for ‘person.’

1750.  Coventry, Pompey Litt., II. ix. (1785), 67/2. They quickly smoaked him for a queer fish, as the phrase is, and began to hope for some diversion at his expence.

1771.  Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1887, I. 137. In truth, he was an odd fish; ignorant of common life, fond of rudely opposing receiv’d opinions, slovenly to extreme dirtiness, enthusiastic in some points of religion, and a little knavish withal.

1820.  Lamb, Elia, South-Sea-House. Humourists, for they were of all descriptions…. Hence they formed a sort of Noah’s ark. Odd fishes.

1831.  Examiner, 395/2. The lady, who was a ‘loose fish,’ became acquainted with him.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. (1882), 19/2. Here he comes, sauntering along with a straw in his mouth, the queerest, coolest fish in Rugby.

  4.  The flesh of fish, esp. as used for food; opposed to flesh, i.e., the flesh of land-animals, and fowl, that of birds.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 13502 (Gött.). Þis bred and fisse was delt abute.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 159. For hij eteþ more fisch þan flesh · and feble ale drynken.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. xxvi. (1495), 461. Female fysshes ben more longe than male fysshes and haue more harde fysshe.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 60. Salt fisch.

c. 1460.  Lydg. & Burgh, Secrets, 1653. In etyng of ffyssh make no contynuaunces.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 232. Ships also were most plentifully furnished with Bisket, Wyne, freshe Water, salt Fishe.

1650.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (ed. 2), III. xxv. 143. We mortifie our selves with the diet of fish, and think we fare coarsly if we refrain from the flesh of other animals.

1756.  R. Rolt, Dict. Trade & Comm., Green Fish is that which is just salted, and yet moist.

1768.  Travis, in Pennant, Zool. (1777), IV. 12. The fish of a Lobster’s claw is more tender, delicate, and easy of digestion than that of the tail.

1813.  Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 288. Fish forms a powerful manure, in whatever state it is applied; but it cannot be ploughed in two [sic] fresh, though the quantity should be limited.

  b.  Meat having the qualities of fish.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 444. The taile of a Beaver is fish, but the taile of an Otter is flesh.

  c.  phr. Neither fish nor flesh (nor good red herring), also neither fish, flesh, nor fowl: i.e., neither one thing nor another; without the particular qualities (or merits) of either. To have other fish to fry: to have other business to attend to. To make fish of one and flesh (or fowl) of another: to make an invidious distinction; to show partiality.

1528.  Rede me & be nott wrothe, I. iij b.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1562), C ij b. She is nother fyshe nor fleshe, nor good red hearyng.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. iii. 144. Fal. Why? she’s neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXIV. xlv. (1609), 540. He had the party himselfe in jelousie and suspition, as one neither fish nor flesh, a man of no credit.

1660.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 132. I fear he hath other fish to fry.

1682.  Dryden, Duke of Guise, Epilogue, 40.

1721.  J. Kelly, Scot. Prov., 220. I will not make Fish of one, and Flesh of another. Lat. Tros tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 21 May, 5/2. This is making fish of one and fowl of another with a vengeance.

1889.  Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gent., xliv. ‘I’ve got other things in hand. I’ve other—I’ve—well, let us be vulgar,’ she cried, with a wild little laugh, ‘I’ve got other fish to fry.’

  5.  Astron. a. The Fish or Fishes (L. Pisces), a zodiacal constellation, situated between Aquarius and Aries. b. The Southern († South) Fish (L. Piscis australis, anciently Piscis notius major), a southern constellation, bounded on the north by Capricorn and Aquarius.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 265.

1551.  Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 267. Laste of the 12 signes commeth the Fyshes, tyed by the tayles with a common Lyne. Ibid., 271. The Southe fyshe, containynge 12 starres: wherof one only is of the greatest lyght, and that is it which standeth also for the eande of the water that runneth frome Aquarius.

  II.  attrib. and Comb.

  6.  General relations: a. simple attrib. (sense 1), as fish-bone, -egg, -guts, -haunt, -shell, -skin, -spawn; (sense 4), as fish-dinner, -meal.

1530.  Palsgr., 220/2. *Fysshebonne, areste.

a. 1653.  Gouge, Comm. Heb. xiii. 1. I may resemble it to a glowworm, or to certain fish-bones, which in the dark make a bright lustre, but give not true light, whereby we may discern one thing from another.

1772–84.  Cook, Voy. (1700), I. 228. The points of these lances are sometimes made of fish-bone.

1661.  Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Before the eating of a *fish-dinner, the body is not to be heated with exercise.

1865.  J. G. Bertram, The Harvest of the Sea (1873), 66. The piscicultural system culminated in France, chiefly under the direction of Professor Coste, in the erection of a great establishment at Huningue, near Bale, for the collection and distribution of *fish-eggs.

1768.  Travis, in Pennant, Zool. (1777), IV. 12. The bait is commonly *fish-guts tied to the bottom and middle of the net.

1833.  J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 50. The angler must therefore find these *fish-haunts out by repeated trials, and store up the experience he may thus aquire in his memory.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 99. Making many *Fish-meales, they fall into a kind of Male Greene-sicknesse.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 307. The ashes verily of the said hairs burnt in some earthen pan or fish-shell, being applied alone or with litharge of siluer, is a singular medicine for the asperity of the eies, & the itch.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 366. They are impregnated in the manner of *fish-spawn, by the male, after being ejected by the female.

  b.  connected with the catching or selling of fish, as fish-bag, -basket, † -boat, -boy, † -craft, -creel, -market, -net, † -officer, -salesman, † -shambles, † -ship, -shop, -spear, -stall, -street, -trap, -van, -wagon, -woman.

1815.  Sporting Mag., XLVI. 11/2. T. G. can be no sportsman, and I should be fearful if my *fish-bag should fall in the way of such a man; he would as readily appropriate some of the contents to himself, as he has appropriated my little essay.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xxi. Men and women with *fish-baskets on their heads.

1663.  Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1829), 82. Eighteen gentlemen, of the names of Fraser, Ross, and Cummine, passing the water of Findhorn in a *fish-boat, were pitifully drowned.

1853.  Reade, Chr. Johnstone, xiii. 217. Then all the *fishboys struck up a dismal chant of victory.

1480.  Caxton, Descr. Brit., 12. Seuarn is swyft of streme, *fisshe craft is ther in.

1552.  Huloet, *Fishe market and fishe streate.

1863.  Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., I. i. 11. Others wandered in the slimy and slippery fish-market, fearfully and wonderingly contemplative of those hideous conger-eels, dog-fish, and other piscatorial monstrosities which seem peculiar to Dieppe.

a. 1000.  Boeth. Metr., xix. 21.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 175. Werpinde ut here fishnet in þe se.

1472.  Presentmts. of Juries, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 23. Þ^t þ^a sell noy feche w^t owt y^t be abyld be *fyche offesers.

1868.  Peard, Water-Farming, xv. 154. We have the authority of an eminent *fish-salesman for stating, ‘that almost any quantity of carp could be disposed of amongst the Jews and Catholics of London alone.’

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 243. The Maquerels serue the market well in Spaine, and furnish the *fish shambles.

1676.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1144/1. Several English *Fish Ships are arrived.

1827.  Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 58. Pedestrians make their way home, or to the inns, as fast as possible, or turn in to sup at the *fish-shops, which, in five minutes, are more lively than their oysters were at any time.

1611.  Bible, Job xli. 7. Canst thou fill his skinne with barbed irons? or his head with *fish-speares?

1818.  Sporting Mag., II. 100. Well pleas’d with the bargain, she left the *fish-stall.

1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 44. He found small hordes of Shoshonies lingering upon the the minor streams, and living upon trout and other fish, which they catch in great numbers at this season in *‘fish traps.’

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Fish-van, a light spring-cart for transporting fish; a railway truck set apart for fish.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, i. 11. The Jackal shams death and lies in the road till the fish-waggon comes by, and the waggoner throws him in to make a kaross of his skin, but the cunning beast throws a lot of fish out into the road, and then jumps out himself.

1698.  J. Crull, Muscovy, 141. You may hear them Rail at and Abuse one another, like *Fish-Women.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 170. In those private letters, indeed, to which the name of Morley was subscribed, the Princess expressed the sentiments of a fury in the style of a fishwoman, railed savagely at the whole Dutch nation, and called her brother in law sometimes the abortion, sometimes the monster, sometimes Caliban.

  c.  in the names of dishes, etc., composed of fish, as fish-ball, † -broo, -broths, -cake, -chowder, † -pickle, -pie, -pudding, -soup.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 316. *Fish Balls, with Brown Sauce.

14[?].  Nominale, in Wr.-Wülcker, 740. Garus, a *fyscbrowe.

1660.  Howell, Lex. Tetrag., *Fish-broth, or fish-pickle; Murette de poisson.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 316. *Fishcakes in Curry.

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., *Fish Pie, a Dish usually serv’d upon Days of Abstinence.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 316. *Fish Pudding, in tins.

1886.  The Saturday Review, LXI. 6 March, 328/1. If Mr. Bateman knew anything of the great art of cookery, he would of course know that in the kitchens of dukes and princes *fish soup is made out of the ‘trimmings’ of fish—heads, tails, fins, bones, and so forth.

  d.  objective, as fish-breeder, -cadger, -catcher, -curer, -frier, -hawker, -seller; fish-breeding, -packing, vbl. sbs.; fish-eating, -selling, ppl. adjs.

1883.  E. R. Lankester, Adv. Science (1890), 214. The scientific result can often only be ‘exhibited’ in so far as it affects the procedure of fish-catchers, *fish-breeders, or fish-culturists.

1889.  Barrie, Window in Thrums, 189. Hendry had been to the *fish-cadger in the square to get a bervie for Jamie’s supper.

1530.  Palsgr., 220/2. *Fysse catcher, peschevr.

1847–8.  H. Miller, First Impr., x. (1857), 166. I have seen a *fish-curer’s vat throwing down its salt when surcharged with the mineral.

1835–6.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 323/1. The *fish-eating Osprey.

1892.  Encycl. Cookery, I. 660/1. Larger fish require a vessel called a *fish-fryer, which is fitted with a perforated or wire strainer.

1893.  Daily News, 14 April, 6/6. The wife of a fish-frier.

1866.  Cornh. Mag., XIII. May, 616. Where the Solemn League and Covenant lay for signature, *fish-hawkers wrangle and organ-grinders count their ill-gotten coppers.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 163/1. *Fysch sellare, piscarius.

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 475. I remember when I was a stripling, the vast Pacific Ocean, commonly, yea, vulgarly, not to say, news-paperrically, nor yet, teatabellically, and moreover, among the speciallest species of ale-drinking, burthen-carrying, *fish-selling rhetoricians, called, appellated, as the saying is, and annominated, the South-sea, was made an engine, I mean organism, to pick people’s pockets and ruin half the nation.

  e.  similative, as † fish-drunk, -shaped, -like, adjs.

1591.  Percivall, Sp. Dict., Embarbascar, to make *fishe drunke.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 27. Hee smels like a fish: a very ancient and *fish-like smell.

1835–6.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 93/2. The elongated fish-like form of those amphibia.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge (1849), 3/2. The sturdy landlord had a large pair of dull fish-like eyes.

1878.  H. H. Gibbs, Ombre (2 ed.), 8. The Counters should be of various shapes—round, oblong, and long (or *fish-shaped), these last counting as one point each.

  f.  instrumental and originative, as fish-derived, -fed, feeding, adjs.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., p. xxxvi. *Fish-derived products.

1614.  Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, V. 297.

1835–6.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 280/1. The *fish-feeding Grallæ.

  g.  appositive, as fish-god, -goddess.

1856.  Stanley, Sinai & Pal., v. (1856), 256. Dagon the *‘Fish-god,’ was honoured with stately temples even in the inland cities of Gaza and Ashdod: Derceto, the *Fish-goddess, was worshipped at Ascalon—their one maritime town.

  7.  Special comb.: fish-backed a., shaped like a fish’s back, swelling upwards; † fish-basil (see quot.); fish-bed, a deposit containing the fossil remains of fishes; fish-bellied a., shaped like a fish’s belly, ‘curved underneath, the depth of curve increasing towards the centre’ (Lockwood); so also fish-belly, used attrib.; fish-berry, a name for Cocculus indicus, the fruit of Anamirta cocculus, used for stupefying fish; fish-bone-thistle = fish-thistles; fish-bone-tree, ‘the Panax crassifolium, a small araliaceous tree of New Zealand’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-brine, a fish-sauce; fish-broth (see 6 c), humorously, salt-water; fish-car, a box in which fish are carried alive in the water; fish-carle Sc., a fisherman (Jam.); fish-carrier, (a) a vessel used to transport the ‘catch’ from the fishing-boats to the shore; (b) a contrivance for keeping fish alive whilst transporting them from place to place; fish-carver, a carving knife for fish; pl. a carving knife and fork for fish; † fish-climber, ? = fish-berry; fish-coop, (a) = fish-pot; (b) ‘a box about three feet square used in fishing through ice’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-crow (U.S.), a crow (Corvus ossifragus) that feeds mainly on fish; fish-culture, the artificial breeding of fish, pisciculture; hence fish-cultural a., of, pertaining to, or concerned in fish-culture, piscicultural; flsh-culturist, one engaged in fish-culture, a fish-breeder, a pisciculturist; fish-eagle, an eagle that preys upon fish; † fish-ear (see quot.); fish-eater, (a) one who lives chiefly upon fish; (b) chiefly pl. a knife and fork to eat fish with; fish-eye-stone Min., obs. synonym of APOPHYLLITE; † fish-face, a term of abuse; fish-fag, a female hawker of fish, a fishwife; fish-farm, a place where fish-culture is carried on; hence fish-farmer, fish-farming; † fish-fast, the observance of fish-days (see FISH-DAY); fish-flake (U.S.), a frame upon which fish is laid to dry; fish-flour, (a) = fish-meal; (b) ‘a dry inodorous fertilizer made from fishes, used for manure’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-gaff, a pole with an iron hook at the end by means of which heavy fish are secured when caught with a line; fish-globe, a spherical glass vessel in which fish are kept; fish-glue, glue obtained from the bladders and sounds of fish, isinglass; fish-gorge, a primitive implement for catching fish, consisting of something (e.g., a stone) fastened by a string for the fish to swallow; fish-guano = fish-manure; fish-hack, a name of the Gobius niger (Adm. Smyth); fish-hawk, the osprey, or bald-buzzard (Pandion haliaëtus); fish-house, † (a) a place where fish are kept; (b) a place where fish is sold; fish-kettle, a long oval vessel for boiling fish; fish-knife, a broad knife, usually of silver, for cutting and serving fish at table; also, a knife for eating fish with; fish-ladder, a series of steps to enable fish to ascend a fall or dam by a succession of leaps; † fish-leep, a fish-basket; fish-liquor, the liquid in which a fish has been boiled; fish-liver-oil, a term applied to the oil obtained from other fish than the cod (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1884); fish-lock = fish-weir; fish-louse, a general name for crustaceans parasitic on fishes; fish-man, † (a) one who makes a meal of fish; (b) a fish hawker; (c) a fisherman; (d) a student of ichthyology; fish-manure, a manure or fertilizer composed of fish; † fish-mariner, the sail-fish; fish-maw, the sound or air-bladder of a fish; fish-meal, dried fish ground to a meal; fish-meter (see quot.); † fish-mint, water-mint; fish-oil, oil obtained from fishes and marine animals, spec. cod-liver oil and whale oil; fish-owl, an eared fishing owl, of the genus Ketupa, with rough feet; fish-pass = fish-way; fish-pearl, an artificial pearl (see quot.); fish-pomace, the refuse of fish after the oil has been expressed, used as a fertilizer; fish-pot, a wicker basket for catching fish, esp. eels, also crabs, lobsters, etc.; fish-potter, one who uses or has charge of fish-pots; † fish-range, a place for catching and drying fish; fish-room (see quots.); fish-sauce, sauce made to be eaten with fish; fish-scrap, fish refuse, used as a fertilizer; fish-slice, a fish-carving knife; also, an implement used by cooks for turning fish in the pan; fish-slide, ‘a fish-trap for shallow rivers and low waterfalls: used in the southern United States’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-sound, the swimming bladder of a fish; † fish-stew = FISH-POND: see STEW; fish-stick (see quot.); † fish-stone, ? a stone table for the sale of fish; fish-story, an incredible tale or ‘yarn’; † fish-stove = fish-stew; fish-strainer, (a) ‘a metal cullender with handles for taking fish from a boiler; (b) an earthenware slab with holes, placed at the bottom of a dish to drain the water from cooked fish’ (Simmonds); fish-thistles, the Chamæpeuce casabonæ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1884); fish-tiger, a bird that preys upon fish; fish-tongue, ‘an instrument sometimes used for the removal of the wisdom-teeth: so named from its shape’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1884); fish-torpedo, a torpedo resembling a fish in shape and with an automatic swimming action; fish-trowel, a fish-carver in the shape of a trowel; fish-warden (U.S.), ‘an officer who has jurisdiction over the fisheries of any particular locality’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-way, an arrangement for enabling fish to ascend a fall or dam; fish-weir, † (a) a draught of fishes; (b) = FISH-GARTH; fish-wood, (a) (see quot.); (b) ‘the strawberry bush, Euonymus americanus’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-worker, ‘a fish-culturist’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-working, ‘fish-culture’ (Cent. Dict.); fish-works, (a) ‘the appliances and contrivances used in fish-culture; (b) a place where the products of the fisheries are utilized; a fish-factory’ (Cent. Dict.); † fish-yard = FISH-GARTH. Also FISH-DAY, -GIG, -HOOK, -MONGER, -POND, -POOL, -SKIN, -TAIL, -WHOLE, -WIFE.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 644. Known in different situations by the denomination of the edge rail, round-top rail, *fish-backed rail, &c.

1597.  Gerard, Herball, II. ccxiii. 549. L’Obelius … calleth it [another wilde Basill] Corcoros, which we have Englished *Fish Basill.

1834.  Edin. Rev., LX. 118. One source of extraordinary expense, to which the Company have been subjected, may be traced to the adoption of *fish-bellied instead of parallel rails, and to the insufficient weight of metal in them.

1862.  Smiles, Engineers, III. 282. The line was in the first place laid with fish-bellied rails of thirty-five pounds to the yard, calculated only for horse-traffic, or, at most, for engines like the ‘Rocket,’ of very light weight.

1888.  Greenwell, Gloss. Coal-trade Terms (ed. 3), 38. Malleable iron rails of the *fish-belly pattern.

1882.  The Garden, XXI. 1 April, 221/1. Chamæpeuce (*Fish-bone Thistle).

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 128. Liquamen, uel garum, *fiscbryne.

1820.  W. Tooke, trans. Lucian, I. 553. That the cook may burn up their ragouts to a cinder, and from inadvertence pour the fish-brine into their lentil-soup.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 44. The churlish frampold waues gaue him his belly-full of *fish-broath.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 199. Model of *fish-car towed by the smack for keeping the catch alive.

1804.  Tarras, Elegy on Sautie, 11, Poems, 143.

1886.  Pall Mall G., 29 June, 4/1. I went out to the fleets on board a steam *fish-carrier. Ibid. (1888), 27 Dec., 2/2. Among Mr. Burgess’s other notions, however, one took the form of a fish carrier. The carrier he has invented is made of zinc.

1697.  Dampier, Voy. (1729), III. I. 447. *Fish-Climer. Has a welted Stalk with 5 ferrated Leaves, viz. two pair, and one at the End; its Beans are red, with a black Kernel: these being bruised and cast into Rivers, intoxicate the Fish.

1803.  S. Pegge, Anecd. Eng. Lang., 275–6. They have a *fish-coop, used for taking fish in the Humber, made of twigs; such as are called eel-pots in the South.

1883.  J. Burroughs, The Tragedies of the Nests, in Century Mag., XXVI. Sept., 682/2. The *fish-crow fishes only when it has destroyed all the eggs and young birds it can find.

1865.  J. G. Bertram, Harvest of Sea (1873), 61. The art of *fish-culture is almost as old as civilization itself.

1872.  (title) Transactions of the American *Fish Cultural Association.

1874.  Amer. Cycl., III. 219. This method has been extensively adopted by American *fish culturists.

1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. 59. A Fisherman of Strasburgh, who himself described and caused to be painted by the life all Water-fowl that frequent the River Rhine thereabouts, sets forth the Bald Buzzard under the title of Fisch-Adler, i. e. the *Fish-Eagle.

1890.  H. M. Stanley, in Pall Mall G., 28 June, 2/2. Fish eagles.

1748.  Phil. Trans., XLV. 233. The other [order of Fishes] is furnish’d with Organs analogous to Lungs, which we call *Fish-Ears, or Gills.

1741.  Chambers, Cycl., Ichthyophagi, *Fish-eaters.

1849.  Southey, Comm-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 632. Babylonian Fish-eaters.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 78. Fish Eaters, Fish Carvers.

1805.  R. Jameson, Char. Min., II. 601. Ichthyophthalmite or *Fish-eye-stone.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Hum. Lieutenant, I. i. Thou look’st like an ass: why, whither would you, *fish-face?

1786.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Bozzy & Piozzi, 25.

1860.  Times, 8 March, 8/4. We rail away at one another … with the impotence of fish-fags.

1865.  J. G. Bertram, The Harvest of the Sea (1873), 238. It is one of the most noteworthy circumstances connected with the revived art of fish-culture, that it has resulted in placing upon the shores of France a countless number of *fish-farms for the cultivation of the oyster alone.

1554.  T. Sampson, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xviii. 49. Works don of a good intent, *fish-fasts, vows, pilgrimages, pardons, and such like popish trash.

1837–40.  Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 195. The cunnin’ critters used to make a sort o’ *fish flakes, and catch herrin’ and torn cods.

1865.  Thoreau, Cape Cod, x. 197. A great many of the houses here were surrounded by fish-flakes close up to the sills on all sides, with only a narrow passage two or three feet wide, to the front door.

1880.  G. B. Goode, Menhaden, 141. In 1876 were exhibited some biscuits made from *‘fish-flour.’… These biscuits were in good condition after having been kept for ten years in an unsealed jar.

1887.  Pall Mall G., 28 June, 6/2. His two sisters … were cut and stabbed with a *fish-gaff.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 438. This *fish-glew [Ichthyocolla] is thought to be best, that is brought out of Pontus.

1676.  J. Worlidge, Vinetum Britannicum, or a Treatise of Cider (1691), 151. Isinglass, or Fish-glew.

1861.  Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. 181. Isinglass or Fish glue is the prepared air-bladder or swimming bladder of the Sturgeon.

1883.  Barnet Phillips, The Primitive Fish-hook, in Century Mag., XXV. April, 900/1. Starting with the crude *fish-gorge, I can show, step by step, the complete sequence of the fish-hook, until it ends with the perfected hood of to-day.

1884.  C. W. Smiley, in U. S. Commiss. of Fish & Fisheries, Report for 1881, 665. Six farmers used about five sacks each of *fish guano.

a. 1813.  A. Wilson, Osprey, Poet. Wks. (1846), 280. God bless the *fish-hawk and the fisher!

1848.  Thoreau, Maine W. (1894), 35. As we stood upon the pile of chips by the door, fish-hawks were sailing overhead; and here, over Shad Pond, might daily be witnessed the tyranny of the bald-eagle over that bird.

c. 1000.  Ælfric’s Gloss., Supp. in Wr.-Wülcker, 184. Piscinale, *fischus.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 132/2. A Fische house, piscarium.

1701.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3748/4. A sand … stretcheth from the South end of the Town to the most Southern Fish-houses.

1877.  S. O. Jewett, Deephaven, 224. Going to market was apt to use up a whole morning, especially if we went to the fish-houses.

1681.  Grew, Musæum Reg. Soc., I. § I. 2. The way of Embalming amongst the Ægyptians, was by boiling the Body (in a long Cauldron like a *Fish-kettle) in some kind of liquid Balsome.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 16. Over the pan, or fish kettle, put a gridiron.

1403.  Nottingham Rec., II. 20. j. *fyschknyff, ijd.

1825.  T. Cosnett, Footman’s Directory, 129. With so large a party as fourteen, there will be two soups and two dishes of fish: be sure in that case to have two soup-ladles and fish-knives.

1826.  The Ass, 1 April, 2. Don’t look sulky, you there with the pinking eyes and the fish-knife nose!

1885.  Bompas, Life E. Buckland, ix. 189. Many *fish-ladders had proved useless, since varying weirs required different forms of fish-pass.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 163/1. *Fysch leep, nassa.

1832.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. V. (1863), 365. He’s actually discussing the whole concern! fish, *fish-liquor, bread, and butter, and parsley,—a precious luncheon!

1661.  N. Riding Rec., VI. 43. The milner of Brignall [presented] for that he doth usually keep in the back beck a *fishlock in the river called Gill Beck.

1540.  Sir R. Sadler, State Papers, I. 48. I eat eggs and white meats, because I am an evil *fishman, and I think it none offence.

a. 1584.  Hist. Tom Thumb, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 220. Tom being swallowed up by a Salmon, is caught by a Fishman.

1794–6.  E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), IV. 145. I overtook a fishman asleep on his panniers on a very cold frosty night, but on waking him he did not appear to be in any degree of stupor.

1805.  Sporting Mag., XXV. Nov., 72/1. My fish-man of whom I constantly purchase, is really thorough bred.

1856.  L. Agassiz, in Bence Jones, Life Faraday (1870), II. 378. You have surely not cast from your mind the enthusiastic fish-man whom you met at Dr. Mantell’s in Brighton seventeen years ago.

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. V. 381. Thou *Fish-Mariner [side note The Sayle-Fish], Thou Boat-Crab.

1840.  Malcom, Trav., 29–30. Among the novelties I tried sharks’ fins, birds’ nests, *fish-maws, and Biche-de-mer.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Fishmaws … are sent to China and used as glue, &c.

1854.  Badham, Halieut., 23. They ate it [fish] raw, dried, or ground down in whalebone mortars, into *fish-meal bread, to feed first themselves and then the cattle.

1880.  Daily News, 8 Nov., 2/5. The officers (*fishmeters as they are called) appointed by the Court of the Fishmongers’ Company seized … 18 tons 7 cwt. offish as unfit for human food.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, II. lxxiv. 245. The seconde wilde kynde … is called … in English *Fisshe Mynte, Brooke Mynte.

1861.  Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. ill. 188. Whale oil, known under the name of *Fish oil, is obtained from the Common Greenland Whale and by the Rorqual, species of Whales in which the skin of the throat and the belly is arranged in folds or plicæ.

1887.  Pall Mall G., 22 Nov., 2/2. The duty-free admission into the States of … fish-oils.

1867.  A. L. Adams, Naturalist in India, 114. We were startled one night by the unpleasant laugh of the *fish-owl (Ketupa ceylonensis); no sound grates harsher on the ear, or is more calculated to bring back recollections of hobgoblins, than the loud hollow voice of this fine bird.

1873.  Act 36–7 Vict., c. 71 § 17. No person shall … wilfully scare or hinder salmon from passing through any *fish pass.

1885.  Bompas, Life E. Buckland, ix. 189. Many fish-ladders had proved useless, since varying weirs required different forms of fish-pass.

1853.  Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 361. In Germany, or rather, Saxony, a cheap but inferior quality [of pearls] is manufactured…. They are known by the name of German *fish pearls.

a. 1555.  Philpot, Exam. & Writ. (Parker Soc.), 336. That *fish-pot or net in the which both good and naughty fishes be contained, of what sort would they these half-gods to be?

1681.  R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 28–9. They place Fish-pots between the Rocks, and so drive the Fish into them.

1847.  Gosse, Birds Jamaica, 430. It was brought to him alive, having been knocked off a fish-pot-buoy; he kept it almost a week, feeding it with the offal of fish, which it ate greedily.

1820.  Southey, Lett. (1856), III. 183. The fish, the fishermen, and the *fish-potters being unanimously of opinion that this is not the season.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. II. 12. A little to the East of this River is a *Fish-Range…. Here are Poles to hang their Nets on, and Barbecues to dry their Fish.

1813.  Falconer’s Dict. Marine, *Fish-room, that place between the after-hold and the spirit-room.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 118. Fish-room. A place parted off in the after-hold by bulk-heads, between the spirit-room, bread-room, and powder-room. It was formerly used for stowing the salt-fish to be consumed on board, a practice long since discontinued.

1818.  Byron, Beppo, viii.

1886.  Punch, Vol. 91, 20 Nov., 252/2. At dinner he is very happy in his apologies for the unavoidable absence of the *fish-slice, and brings in a dish as if he were introducing a deputation.

1879.  Encycl. Brit., X. 133/1. Gelatin-yielding substances in the animal kingdom are very numerous, comprising the skins of all animals, tendons, intestines, bladders and *fish sounds, bones, horns, and hoofs.

1552.  Huloet, *Fishe … stewe, icthyotrophia.

1885.  Chamb. Jrnl., 31 Jan., 75/1. A proposal that has been made to revive the fish stews or ponds which in bygone times were so plentiful in this country.

1875.  J. C. Wilcocks, The Sea-Fisherman, 57. A *fish-stick is often seen at a cottage door in the West of England, and consists generally of a young holly bush deprived of its bark, and the branches left about a foot in length at bottom, diminishing to six inches at the top, the fish being thrust on through a hole in the tail part.

1822.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 379. The erection of such a number of *Fish Stones in Derby Square or on the South side of St. George’s Church as they may think proper for the accommodation of the neighbourhood.

1887.  C. F. Holder, Living Lights, 97. Exaggerations are often termed *‘fish-stories,’ for the reason perhaps that improbable tales are related concerning the denizens of the sea by fun-loving mariners.

1615.  Sandys, Journey, IV. 255. The *fish-stoues by him hewne out of the rocke, and built.

1879.  E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, I. (1886), 20.

1878.  N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 236. The Shah … sent a *fish-torpedo against the Huascar, which, seeing bubbles of air rising to the surface, avoided the machine, and it ran straight into a harbor near by.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Fish-trowel, Fish-knife, knife for serving fish.

1826.  Cushing, Newburyport, 118. *Fishwardens. Messrs. Offin Boardman, [etc.].

1870.  Law Rep., V. 671. No mill is prejudiced by the making of a *fishway in the dam.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Luke v. 4. Lætað eowre nett on þone *fisc-wer.

a. 1100.  Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 261. Fiscwer and mylne macian.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 423.

1883.  C. H. Farnham, The Canadian Habitant, in Harper’s Mag., VI. Aug., 376/1. The bold shores along the foot of the capes are diversified with little houses among trees and fish-weirs along the rocks.

1861.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., II. 73. The celebrated *fish-wood (Piscidia erythrina,) used for the purpose of intoxicating fish.

1685.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 287. Allowing Mr. Maior or his deputie everie Friday, all the fish taken in y^e *fish yards in one tide. Ibid. (1789), (1886), II. 241. Lancashire shores of the river Mersey for liberty to inspect and eventually to destroy the Fish Yards now set upon the samse.