cockfish
cockfish noun: a male fish, especially a salmon or trout.
Noun (1)
cockfish (plural cockfish)
- A male fish, especially a salmon or trout.
- Spawning fish on the redds. A henfish will often be attended by two or three cockfish – whilst displaying ritual combat between themselves, one cock will mate, others may follow [image caption]2005, Roderick Sutterby, Malcolm Greenhalgh, “Life in the Nursery”, in Atlantic Salmon: An Illustrated Natural History, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 23
- Synonyms:
- cock
- A callorhinchid fish, Callorhinchus callorynchus, native to South America.
- Morphology of the main digestive features of cockfish, Callorhinchus callorhynchus, is described and linked to feeding habits. […] The diet of the cockfish is compared with that of other holocephalans.1996, Edgardo E. Di Gitlcomo, Maria Raquel Perier, “Feeding habits of cockfish, Callorhinchus callorhynchus (Holocephali: Callorhynchidae), in Patagonian waters (Argentina)”, in Marine and Freshwater...
- Synonyms:
- elephantfish, American elephantfish
- A cyprinid fish, Hypselobarbus dubius, native to India.
- Synonyms:
- Nilgiris barb
Verb
cockfish (third-person singular simple present cockfishes, present participle cockfishing, simple past and past participle cockfished)
- To deceive others by using fake photos of one’s genitalia.
- If you’re engaging in a flirtatious conversation with a new acquaintance, be cautious about exchanging explicit photos if you haven’t met them in person to avoid falling for this exploitative technique. Here are three reasons why people “cockfish” and tips to help you protect yourself.2023, Mark Travers, “3 Ways To Not Fall Pray to Online 'Cockfishing', According To a Psychologist”, in Forbes
Noun (2)
cockfish (plural cockfish or cockfishes)
- A person who cockfishes.
- Cockfish (sometimes known as catcocks) are loosely related to catfish in that they use the mystery of the world wide web to misrepresent who they are to potential friends, dates, or even financial donors. However, whereas a catfish will cloak pretty much their whole identity – often with a fake...2019 September 26, Jessica Lindsay, “What is cockfishing (also known as catcocking), and how can you spot it?”, in Metro, London, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2019
- So while a catfish might misrepresent their entire identity - including even stealing photographs from someone else's profile - a cockfish focuses on one specific body part.2019 September 26, Lucy Devine, “‘Cockfishing’ is the latest misleading dating trend that’s even worse than catfishing”, in The Sun, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2019
Synonyms of cockfish
- cock
- elephantfish
- American elephantfish
- Nilgiris barb
Forms of cockfish
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cockfish |
| alternative form | cock fish |
| alternative form | cock-fish |
| plural | cockfishes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cockfishes |
| present participle | cockfishing |
| past participle | cockfished |
| past | cockfished |
Origin of cockfish
From cock + fish.
Blend of cock (“penis”) + catfish (“(to create) a fake online profile”).
Questions about cockfish
- What does cockfish mean?
- Cockfish means a male fish, especially a salmon or trout.
- What part of speech is cockfish?
- Cockfish can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of cockfish?
- The plural of cockfish is cockfish.
Words near cockfish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cockfish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cockfish.wav.
Cite this entry: “cockfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cockfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.