noun

catfish

KAT-fihsh

noun

A whiskered, scaleless freshwater fish of the order Siluriformes.

"We caught a huge catfish near the riverbed."

Someone who sets up a fake online identity to trick another person, often romantically.

"She discovered the man she'd been messaging for months was a catfish using stolen photos."

verb

To deceive someone using a fake online profile.

"He was catfished by someone pretending to be a model."

"It's surprisingly easy to catfish people who don't verify who they're talking to."

How to Use Catfish

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishEither the whiskered fish, or (much more commonly used today) someone faking an online identity to fool someone else.

Common pairings

get catfished a catfish scam fried catfish

Word Forms

catfished past tense, catfished past tense, catfish plural, catfishes plural, catfish plural, catfishes plural, catfishes singular, catfishes singular

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We caught a huge _____ near the riverbed.

Etymology

The fish is named for its cat-like facial whiskers (barbels). The online-deception sense took off after the 2010 documentary Catfish popularized the term.