fishy

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fish·y

(fĭsh′ē)

adj. fish·i·er, fish·i·est

1. Resembling or suggestive of fish, as in taste or odor.

2. Cold or expressionless: a fishy stare.

3. Informal Inspiring doubt or suspicion: Something is fishy about the accident.

fish′i·ly adv.

fish′i·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fishy

(ˈfɪʃɪ)

adj, fishier or fishiest

1. of, involving, or suggestive of fish

2. abounding in fish

3. informal suspicious, doubtful, or questionable: their leaving at the same time looked fishy.

4. dull and lifeless: a fishy look.

ˈfishily adv

ˈfishiness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fish•y

(ˈfɪʃ i)

adj. fish•i•er, fish•i•est.

1. like a fish esp. in smell or taste.

2. dubious; suspicious: That excuse sounds fishy.

[1540–50]

fish′i•ly, adv.

fish′i•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	fishy - of or relating to or resembling fish; "the soup had a fishy smell"
	2.	fishy - not as expected; "there was something fishy about the accident"; "up to some funny business"; "some definitely queer goings-on"; "a shady deal"; "her motives were suspect"; "suspicious behavior" suspect, suspicious, funny, shady colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech questionable - subject to question; "questionable motives"; "a questionable reputation"; "a fire of questionable origin"

fishy

adjective

1. fishlike, piscine, piscatorial, piscatory It hasn't a very strong fishy flavour.

2. (Informal) suspicious, odd, suspect, unlikely, funny (informal), doubtful, dubious, dodgy (Brit., Austral., & N.Z. informal), queer, rum (Brit. slang), questionable, improbable, implausible, cock-and-bull (informal) There seems to be something fishy going on.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

fishy

adjective

Informal. Of dubious character:

doubtful, equivocal, questionable, shady, suspect, suspicious, uncertain.

Translations

سَمَكي الرائِحَهمَشْبوه، غَريب

podezřelýrybí

fiske-mistænkeligmuggen

faul fischig

louche

halszerû

fisk-undarlegur; grunsamlegur

di pesce sospetto

fiske-suspekt

rybí

balık gibibalık tadındakuşkulu şüpheli

可疑的腥臭的象鱼的

fishy

[ˈfɪʃɪ] ADJ (fishier (compar) (fishiest (superl)))

1. [smell, taste] → a pescado

2. (= suspect) → sospechoso
there's something fishy about him → hay algo en él que resulta sospechoso
it sounds fishy to me → me huele a chamusquina (Sp)
there's something fishy going on here → aquí hay gato encerrado, me huele a chamusquina (Sp)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

fishy

[ˈfɪʃi] adj

[taste, smell] → de poisson

(made with fish) [dish] → au poisson

(= suspicious) → suspect(e), louche
It all sounds rather fishy to me → Ça m'a l'air louche.

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

fishy

adj (+er)

fishy smell → Fischgeruch m; it smells rather fishy → es riecht ziemlich nach Fisch

(inf) → verdächtig; excuse, story → faul (inf); there’s something fishy about his story → an seiner Geschichte ist was faul (inf); something fishy is going on → hier ist was faul (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

fishy

[ˈfɪʃɪ] adj (-ier (comp) (-iest (superl)))

a. (smell, taste) (usu pej) → di pesce

b. (fam) (suspicious) → losco/a, sospetto/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

fish

(fiʃ) noun – plurals fish (rare) ˈfishes –

1. a kind of creature that lives in water and breathes through gills. There are plenty of fish around the coast.

2. its flesh eaten as food. Do you prefer meat or fish?

verb

1. to (try to) catch fish (in). She likes fishing; He fished the river all day.

2. (usually with for) to search for. She fished around in her handbag for a handkerchief.

3. (usually with for) to try to get by indirect means. He is always fishing for compliments.

ˈfishy adjective

1. of or like a fish. a fishy smell.

2. odd or suspicious. There's something fishy about that man.

ˈfishball noun

mashed fish shaped into a ball and cooked.

ˈfisherman noun

a person who fishes either as a job or as a hobby.

ˈfish farm noun

an area of fresh water for breeding fish as a business.

fish farmer

a person who breeds fish.

ˈfish hatchery noun

a place for hatching fish eggs.

ˈfishing-line noun

a fine strong thread, now usually made of nylon, used with a rod, hooks etc for catching fish.

ˈfishing-rod noun

a long thin flexible rod used with a fishing-line and hooks etc for catching fish.

fish merchant

a fishmonger.

ˈfishmonger noun

1. a person who sells fish.

2. a shop that sells mainly fish. I must go down to the fishmonger.

feel like a fish out of water

to feel uncomfortable or out of place in a situation.

fish out

to pull something out with some difficulty. At last he fished out the letter he was looking for.

The plural fish is never wrong, but sometimes fishes is used in talking about different individuals or species: How many fish did you catch? ; the fishes of the Indian Ocean ; the story of two little fishes .

References in classic literature ?

Fishiest of all fishy places was the Try Pots, which well deserved its name; for the pots there were always boiling chowders.

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Another man in my place might be inclined to say that this Newfoundland boat-house was rather a sloppy, slimy, draughty, fishy sort of a habitation to take shelter in.

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In fact, placed before the strict and piercing truth, this whole story will fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, Dagon by name; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse's head and both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the stump or fishy part of him remained.

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You will be nearly sure to meet one or two old rod-men, sipping their toddy there, and they will tell you enough fishy stories, in half an hour, to give you indigestion for a month.

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Caderousse, who had let his head drop on the table, now raised it, and looking at Fernand with his dull and fishy eyes, he said, -- "Kill Dantes!

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The village had a very strong smell, and a curious habit of building boats in the street between intervals of detached cottages; a helpless, muddy, fishy little place.

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And the mere sight of the torment, with his fishy eyes and mouth open, his sandy hair inquisitively on end, and his waistcoat heaving with windy arithmetic, made me vicious in my reticence.

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"Now, what do you think?" Van Horn asked of Borckman, whose eyes were remarkably fishy. "I never saw the old rascal so friendly.

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Several fishy hands helped her up, and Charlie said, as he scattered the scarlet garments over the grass with an oar

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He was narrow-chested and skinny, and his hands were always cold and fishy. But my!

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Ham, who had been giving me my first lesson in all-fours, was trying to recollect a scheme of telling fortunes with the dirty cards, and was printing off fishy impressions of his thumb on all the cards he turned.

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Our ambuscade would have been intolerable, for the stench of the fishy seals was most distressing {45}--who would go to bed with a sea monster if he could help it?--but here, too, the goddess helped us, and thought of something that gave us great relief, for she put some ambrosia under each man's nostrils, which was so fragrant that it killed the smell of the seals.

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