fish

1. (intransitive, transitive) To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a body of water, or to collect coral or pearls from the bottom of the sea.Examples: "We went fishing for crabs by the pier."; "She went to the river to fish for trout."; "19th c., anonymous, "The Bonny Ship the 'Diamond'" It's cheer up, my lads, let your hearts never fail, For the bonny ship the Diamond goes a-fishing for the whale."intransitivetransitive

2. (transitive) To search (a body of water) for something other than fish.Examples: "They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body."transitive

3. (fishing, transitive) To use as bait when fishing.Examples: "`What you need are frogs,' said the veteran. `Fish them at night. There's nothing like them on big cork floats.'"transitive

4. (intransitive) To (attempt to) find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.Examples: "Why are you fishing through my things?"; "He was fishing for the keys in his pocket."Synonyms: rummage, rifle, rummageintransitive

5. (intransitive, followed by "for" or "around for") To talk to people in an attempt to get them to say something, or seek to obtain something by artifice.Examples: "The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information."; "The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments."; "Laoctonos is fishing for a compliment, But ’tis his due. Yes, you have drunk more wine, And shed more blood, than any man in Thebes."intransitive

6. (intransitive, cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.intransitive

1. (obsolete) A counter, used in various games.obsolete

1. (genetics) Acronym of fluorescent in situ hybridization, a molecular cytogenetic technique used to identify whether a DNA sample has a specific sequence.abbreviationacronymalt-ofuncountable