catfish

English

A walking catfish
A talking catfish

Etymology 1

From cat +‎ fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers.

Noun

catfish (countable and uncountable, plural catfish or catfishes)

  1. Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

  1. To fish for catfish
    I only use this rod for catfishing.

Etymology 2

From the 2010 documentary Catfish.

Noun

catfish (plural catfishes)

  1. (Internet) Someone who creates a fake profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.
  2. (Internet) Such a fake profile.

Verb

catfish (third-person singular simple present catfishes, present participle catfishing, simple past and past participle catfished)

  1. (Internet, slang, transitive) To create a fake online profile to deceive (someone).
    • 2013 January 17, Mary Pilon, “In Te’o Story, Deception Ripped From the Screen”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:
      Getting catfished is when someone falls for a person online who is not necessarily real. It can involve pictures, phone calls, social media profiles, text messages, e-mails and even phony friends or family members.
    • 2014 January 16, Donald Glover as Troy, Cooperative Polygraphy (Community) (TV), season 5, episode 4, NBC, 12:17 from the start:
      [to Abed] You made a profile for a fake dude and lured her into an online relationship. [to Annie] He's catfishing you.
    • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:catfish.

See also

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