neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring adjective: synonym of neither fish nor fowl (“not easily categorized; not rightly belonging or fitting well in a given group or situation; also, not having the advantages of the various options”).
Adjective
neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring (not comparable)
- Synonym of neither fish nor fowl (“not easily categorized; not rightly belonging or fitting well in a given group or situation; also, not having the advantages of the various options”).
- The work of Ude is intended for the higher ranks, and for people of fortune. We conceive the book and the cook to have been overrated. It is neither French nor English — neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. For the rest, Lord Sefton, who was too much of a mere glutton, would have perverted...1844 April, Scott, “Rise and Progress of Culinary Literature and Cookery [running head]”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, American edition, volume XXXIII, New York, N.Y.: Published by Leonard Scott...
- He had frequent fits of melancholy in which he declared that he was neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring. His was neither an irresponsibly contemplative nature nor a sturdily practical one, and he was for ever looking in vain for the uses of the things that please and the charm of the things...1875, Henry James, Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: J. R. Osgood
- Synonyms:
- neither fish nor fowl
Examples of neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring in a sentence
- It is neither French nor English — neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.1844 April, Scott, “Rise and Progress of Culinary Literature and Cookery [running head]”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, American...
- It is neither fish, flesh, nor fowl; or Neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.[1898, E[benezer] Cobham Brewer, “Fish”, in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases...
Synonyms of neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
Forms of neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
| alternative form | neither fish, flesh, nor fowl |
|---|---|
| alternative form | neither fish nor flesh |
| alternative form | neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring |
Origin of neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
The three foods are metonyms for those things suitable to each of medieval society’s classes of people; fish represents the clergy, flesh represents commoners, whilst red herring represents paupers; the three classes are simplistically regarded as exhaustive.
Questions about neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring
- What does neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring mean?
- Neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring means synonym of neither fish nor fowl (“not easily categorized; not rightly belonging or fitting well in a given group or situation; also, not having the advantages of the various options”).
- How do you use neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring in a sentence?
- It is neither French nor English — neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.
- What part of speech is neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring?
- Neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring is an adjective.
Words near neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.ogg.
Cite this entry: “neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neither_fish%2C_flesh%2C_nor_good_red_herring. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.