kettle of fish
kettle of fish noun: an awkward situation.
Noun
kettle of fish (plural kettles of fish)
- An awkward situation.
- fine kettle of fish pretty kettle of fish
- "That's a fine kettle of fish," he exclaimed, then turned to his dinner companion. "Fine kettle of fish. I'm so hungry even that sounds good, and from the looks of this menu that's probably what I'll get."2004, Ellen Raskin, chapter 13, in The Westing Game
- Synonyms:
- cauldron, mess, can of worms, predicament, ass in a sling, bind, bucket of syrup, calvary, cross, cross to bear
- A situation recognized as different from or as an alternative to some other situation.
- another kettle of fish new kettle of fish different kettle of fish
- Network Rail would have faced a bigger issue. Maintaining the track for one freight train a day is one thing - doing so for 200 passenger trains a day was a very different kettle of fish.2023 November 29, Richard Foster, “Tyne & Wear Metro goes with the flow”, in RAIL, number 997, page 34
- Synonyms:
- ball game, horse of a different color, pair of shoes, matter
kettle of fish meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
kettle of fish in Tamil
- நிலைமை
kettle of fish in Urdu
- بےڈھب حالت, پریشان کن معاملہ
kettle of fish in Bengali
- একটি বিব্রতকর পরিস্থিতি
Synonyms of kettle of fish
- cauldron
- mess
- can of worms
- predicament
- ass in a sling
- bind
- bucket of syrup
- calvary
- cross
- cross to bear
25 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of kettle of fish
| plural | kettles of fish |
|---|---|
| alternative form | kiddle of fish |
| alternative form | kittle of fish |
| alternative form | keddle of fish |
Origin of kettle of fish
From kettle, a variant of kiddle, a weir or fence of stakes in a stream used to catch fish.
Questions about kettle of fish
- What does kettle of fish mean?
- Kettle of fish means an awkward situation.
- What is kettle of fish in Tamil?
- Kettle of fish in Tamil is நிலைமை. See Kettle of fish meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is kettle of fish?
- Kettle of fish is a noun.
- What is the plural of kettle of fish?
- The plural of kettle of fish is kettles of fish.
Words near kettle of fish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kettle of fish (page history and authors); kettle of fish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); kettle of fish (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); kettle of fish (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: en-au-kettle of fish.ogg.
Cite this entry: “kettle of fish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kettle_of_fish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.