catfishes

Noun (1)

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.
   • “You don’t see catfish that big anymore, except in Chernobyl […] Nobody fishes there anymore, so the catfish thrive. They’ve gotten really enormous, some even twelve or thirteen feet long. They’re bottom-feeders, and apparently the mud still contains a lot of radioactive particles, but the catfish...2013, Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being, Canongate Books (2019), page 213

   Synonyms:

   catlet, sheat, sheatfish, river chicken

2. The meat of such a fish, popular in the Southern U.S. and Central Europe.

Noun (2)

catfish (plural catfish or catfishes)

1. (Internet) Someone who creates a false profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.
   • Real people in a picture that was used by a catfish to create a fake identity could have a claim because their likeness was used without permission, Shear said.2013 January 17, Mary Pilon, “In Te’o Story, Deception Ripped From the Screen”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2020

   Synonyms:

   catfisher

2. (Internet) Such a false profile.

See all 6 meanings of catfish