catfish

1 of 2

noun

cat·​fish ˈkat-ˌfish 

1

: any of an order (Siluriformes) of chiefly freshwater stout-bodied scaleless bony fishes having long tactile barbels

2

: a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes

Illustration of catfish

• catfish 1

catfish

2 of 2

verb

catfished; catfishing; catfishes

1

intransitive : to fish for catfish

… Bob was catfishing off a floating Ohio River dock near Eight Mile Road east of Cincinnati one early summer evening …

—Kentucky Happy Hunting Ground

2

transitive : to deceive (someone) by creating a false personal profile online

"They never actually met. She was an online thing. They'd been talking for over a year. We were all pretty sure she was catfishing him, but he was convinced she was legit and that they were in love."

—R. L. Naquin

"Heather" stopped messaging me abruptly several months after we started talking. She was a grown woman, and I never lied about how young I was. Even so, I've never been quite sure which one of us was being catfished.

—Vanessa Vitiello Uruhart

see also catfish entry 1 sense 2

catfishing noun

… this novel is timely due to recent high-profile examples of "catfishing"—where an individual creates a false online identity, often with deceptive or malicious romantic goals.

—Ryan F. Paulsen

Did you know?

For centuries, a catfish was merely a type of fish with a distinctive face. Then, in 2010, Ariel Schulman released Catfish, a documentary about his brother Nev's experiences with a woman who pretended to be someone else online. (The movie was popular enough to spawn a television show by the same title.) In the documentary, the woman's husband explained the title with an anecdote about how fishermen transporting live cod used to put catfish in with the cod on long-haul shipments to keep the desirable cod active and alert until arrival. The man implied that his wife was like those catfish, keeping the lives of others fresh and interesting.

Examples of catfish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Six Mekong giant catfish, a critically endangered species, in Cambodia were recently spotted and caught within the span of a week, giving scientists and locals hope that conservation efforts may be paying off. —Amaris Encinas, USA TODAY, 13 Dec. 2024

An additional 500 pounds of catfish were later added in the lake, accounting for at least 1,600 pounds of new fish in the lake since last year. —Kyle Martin, The Mercury News, 11 Aug. 2024

Verb

Ali Wong on 'Beef' | Credit: Andrew Cooper/Netflix Amy tries to catfish Danny on Instagram… and gets into an entanglement with his brother Amy sleuths on Instagram and finds an account for At Cho Service with a photo of Danny featured in the profile photo. —Jessica Wang, EW.com, 7 Apr. 2023

In another study published last year, Evita March, senior lecturer in psychology at Federation University in Australia, found that people with the strong personality traits of sadism, psychopathy, and narcissism were more likely to catfish. —Sen Nguyen, CNN, 29 Jan. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

cat entry 1 + fish entry 1; so called from the whiskerlike appearance of the barbels surrounding the fish's mouth; (sense 2) after Catfish (2010), a documentary film about a man who through social networking develops remote relationships with members of a family whose life histories have been fabricated to various degrees

Note: The title of the film, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, is based on a story told by the husband of the woman responsible for the fabrications. He explains that at one time cod were shipped live in tanks from Alaska to China. The inactive cod would become mushy and tasteless, until someone came upon the idea of placing catfish in the tanks to stimulate them. To the man, his wife has played a role similar to that of the catfish in the tank: "… there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh." As subsequent investigation has uncovered, the catfish tale is much older than the film. It was used for different comparative purposes by the British journalist Henry Nevinson in an essay "The Catfish" published as part of a collection in 1913 (Essays in Rebellion, London, James Nisbet & Co.). The tale itself appears to be a fabrication, as cod were not shipped across oceans in tanks, and catfish, being bottom-feeders, are not predators of cod. For further details see Ben Zimmer, "Catfish: How Manti Te'o's imaginary romance got its name," Boston Globe (online), January 27, 2013; Aisha Harris, "Who coined the term 'catfish'?", Slate (online), January 18, 2013.

Verb

derivative of catfish entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1620, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1871, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing catfish

• blue catfish
• channel catfish
• cory catfish
• flathead catfish
• walking catfish

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Kids Definition

catfish

noun

cat·​fish ˈkat-ˌfish 

: any of numerous usually freshwater stout-bodied fishes with large heads and long thin feelers about the mouth