Fish Idioms & Fish Phrases! Learn common Fish idioms, phrases, and sayings in English with meaning and example sentences.
List of 50+ Useful Fish Idioms in English
(On a) Fishing Expedition
Meaning: Looking for evidence without any solid suspicion of wrongdoing
Example: The reporter go on a fishing expedition acres the president’s involvement in the Iraq War.
A Cold Fish
Meaning: Someone who is not often moved by emotions, who is regarded as being hard and unfeeling.
Example: Lord Halifax was a cold fish, a man of steely rectitude, a religious man.
A Fish Story
Meaning: A big lie
Example: Here is a whale of a fish story for you.
All Is Fish That Comes To His Net
Meaning: A phrase that describes one’s ability to make use of anything available
Example: He took advantage of all the opportunities he had in school to learn – all is fish that comes to the net.
Better Fish To Fry
Meaning: to have other more important to do
Example: I can’t worry about that now, I’ve got better fish to fry!
Big Fish
Meaning: an important or influential person
Example: The old man tussled with the big fish.
Big Fish In A Small Pond
Meaning: a person who has more experience, knowledge, power than others in a small field or group of people
Example: In our school, Professor Johnson a big fish in a small pond.
Cry Stinking Fish (UK)
Meaning: self-deprecate
Example: The companies involved are not going to cry stinking fish for sell.
Different Kettle of Fish
Meaning: spoken to recognize an abrupt shift in the topic being discussed.
Drink Like A Fish
Meaning: Drink excessive amounts of alcohol
Example: You may think you know sailing, but the currents at Tierra del Fuego are a different kettle of fish.
Read More: Most common English idioms and phrases
fine/pretty kettle of fish
Meaning: a predicament
Example: That was indeed a pretty kettle of fish.
Fish Around
Meaning: investigate
Example: Our tests on moving fish around in correctly dosed water brought impressive results.
Fish Eye
Meaning: to give someone a mean look; to glare
Example: It utilizes a 135 wide-angle lens that delivers a true high quality image that captures all the action with minimal distortion or fish eye.
Fish For A Compliment
Meaning: an attempt to get praise from other people
Example: My daughter loves to fish for compliments when she manages to do her homework all by herself.
Fish For Something
Meaning: to try to get some information out of somebody
Example: I could tell by his broad, open-ended questions that he was just fishing for information, but don’t worry I didn’t say anything.
Fish Out of Water
Meaning: A person who doesn’t feel comfortable in a new environment/situation
Example: “Like a fish out of water” was an apt description of how I felt in my new job.
Fish Tale
Meaning: a lie or an exaggeration of the truth.
Example: Claire Raskind, publicist for Fish Tale Productions, which just finished shooting the film, declined comment.
Fish-Eating Grin
Meaning: An overly satisfied smile intended to annoy others.
Example: He has been walking around with that same fish-eating grin ever since he got a promotion.
Fish-Kiss
Meaning: to kiss someone with puckered lips like a fish
Example: Ryan fish-kiss his girlfriend right in front of the whole school.
Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel
Meaning: Very easy
Example: Picking out this item or that for criticism seems unsportsmanlike, like shooting fish in a barrel.
Read More: Idioms About Knowledge
Make Fish of One and Fowl of the Other
Meaning: People must be treated equally
Example: The contract calls for new hires to be paid less permanently. But why make fish of one and fowl of the other?
Neither Fish Nor Fowl
Meaning: Of indefinite character and difficult to identify or classify
Example: Everybody said when we started out that you can’t do this, you won’t make a success of it, you’re neither fish nor fowl.
Odd-Fish
Meaning: (UK) used to describe a person that is weird or strange.
Example: Angela is sort of an odd-fish. She’s always a little off from where her peers are.
Sleep With The Fishes
Meaning: to murder someone and then dump the body in a body of water such as a lake, river or ocean
Example: I heard the guy with the gun tell Mark that he is going to sleep with the fishes.
Teach A Man To Fish
Meaning: Teaching someone how to do something is more helpful to him or her in the long run than just doing it for him or her
Example: If you teach him to catch a fish you do him a good turn.
The Cat Would Eat Fish But Would Not Wet Her Feet
Meaning: In order to get what you want, you must be willing to take risks and endure annoyances
Example: I know it will be a lot of work, but you’re so qualified that you have to try for this promotion – the cat would eat fish, but would not wet her feet.
There are plenty of other fish in the sea
Meaning: There are other more suitable choices
Example: Megan was sad after she broke up with Andrew, but I told her not to be sad. There are plenty of other fish in the sea.
Fish In Troubled Waters
Meaning: to benefit by getting involved in somebody else’s problems
Example: He likes to buy stops in companies that are going out of business. I guess sometimes fishing in troubled waters can be very profitable.
Fishtail
Meaning: when the back of a vehicle whips back and forth in an uncontrolled manner
Example: If the car begins to fishtail, the back wheels have lost grip.
Fish or cut bait
Meaning: an admonition to act or to remove oneself as an obstacle to another person acting
Example: Well, I’ve got the other customer which likes it, so it’s time to you to fish or cut bait.
To Need Something Like A Fish Needs A Bicycle
Meaning: used to describe something that you don’t need
Example: I am happy with my computer. I need a new computer like a fish needs a bicycle.
What’s That Got To Do With The Price of Fish? (UK)
Meaning: A rhetorical question calling attention to a non-sequitur or irrelevant statement or suggestion made by another person.
Example: I agree that health care is an important issue, but what’s that go to do with the price of fish?
Idioms Exercises
