catfish
Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and…Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.
» Tom was being catfished.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(countable, uncountable)Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.
Wels, Katzenwels
сомsom
сомsom
any of numerous mostly freshwater bottom-living fishes of Eurasia and North America with barbels like whiskers around the mouth
(countable, uncountable)The meat of such a fish, popular in the Southern U.S. and Central Europe.
flesh of scaleless food fish of the southern United States; often farmed
(Internet)Someone who creates a false profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.
(Internet)Such a false profile.
Examples
30 sentencesTom was being catfished.
I don't like catfish.
I hate catfish.
Catfish are still biting.
Catfish have no scales.
У сомів немає луски. — deniko · CC BY 2.0 FR
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From cat + fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers. CompareFrom cat + fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers. Compare West Frisian katfisk (“catfish”), Dutch katvis (“catfish”). Compare also German Seekatze (“catfish”, literally “sea-cat”).
From the 2010 documentary Catfish, supposedly inspired by the practice of fishermen keeping cod active by storing them with catfish (see sense 1) which nip at their tails.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: catfish / catfishesSynonyms
9 synonyms- any of numerous mostly freshwater bottom-living fishes of Eurasia and North America with barbels like whiskers around the mouth:siluriform fish
- flesh of scaleless food fish of the southern United States; often farmed:mudcat
- large ferocious northern deep-sea food fishes with strong teeth and no pelvic fins:wolffishwolf fish
Word family
30 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A1Plural nouns — Because its plural is irregular
- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable