Careful Words

fish (n.)

fish (v.)

fish (adj.)

All is fish that comth to net.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.

The cat would eate fish, and would not wet her feete.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. xi.

  To fish in troubled waters.

Mathew Henry (1662-1714): Commentaries. Psalm lx.

  It's no fish ye 're buying, it's men's lives.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): The Antiquary. Chap. xi.

She is nether fish nor flesh, nor good red herring.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.

Fish not, with this melancholy bait,

For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 1.

  Cato the elder wondered how that city was preserved wherein a fish was sold for more than an ox.

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): Roman Apophthegms. Cato the Elder.

  I would have you call to mind the strength of the ancient giants, that undertook to lay the high mountain Pelion on the top of Ossa, and set among those the shady Olympus.

Martin Luther (1483-1546): Works. Book iv. Chap. xxxviii.

  I have other fish to fry.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxv.

What female heart can gold despise?

What cat's averse to fish?

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On the death of a Favourite Cat.

  A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 3.

A very ancient and fish-like smell.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Tempest. Act ii. Sc. 2.