Word.ws English Dictionary

fish-horn

fish-horn noun: a horn that produces a loud and penetrating sound, used by a fishmonger to announce that the catch is in.

Noun

fish-horn (plural fish-horns)

  1. (historical) A horn that produces a loud and penetrating sound, used by a fishmonger to announce that the catch is in.
    • Our "music" consisted of a bass-drum, which was tortured by the clown; a fish-horn beautifully played upon by Sam Palmer; a dinner-bell whose din was extracted by Jack Adams.1884, George Thompson, My Life: or the Adventures of Geo. Thompson
    • He pointed toward the column, whose advance Juggie was enthusiastically stimulating by loud and prolonged blasts on the fish-horn.1886, Edward A. Rand, The Knights of the White Shield

Forms of fish-horn

pluralfish-horns
alternative formfish horn

Origin of fish-horn

From fish + horn.

Questions about fish-horn

What does fish-horn mean?
Fish-horn means a horn that produces a loud and penetrating sound, used by a fishmonger to announce that the catch is in.
What part of speech is fish-horn?
Fish-horn is a noun.
What is the plural of fish-horn?
The plural of fish-horn is fish-horns.

Words near fish-horn in the dictionary

  1. fish-hawk
  2. fish-hawks
  3. fish-head
  4. fish-heads
  5. fish-hook theory
  6. fish-horn
  7. fish-horns
  8. fish-house
  9. fish-houses
  10. fish-kettle
  11. fish-kettles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fish-horn (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.

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