What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Brook vs Fish - What's the difference?

brook | fish |

In transitive terms the difference between brook and fish

is that brook is to bear; endure; support; put up with; tolerate (usually used in the negative, with an abstract noun as object) while fish is to try to find something other than fish in (a body of water).

As verbs the difference between brook and fish

is that brook is to use; enjoy; have the full employment of while fish is to try to catch fish, whether successfully or not.

As nouns the difference between brook and fish

is that brook is a body of running water smaller than a river; a small stream while fish is a cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.

As proper nouns the difference between brook and fish

is that brook is {{surname|from=Middle English}} for someone living by a brook.Fish is {{surname|lang=en}.

brook

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)
  • To use; enjoy; have the full employment of.
  • To earn; deserve.
  • (label) To bear; endure; support; put up with; tolerate (usually used in the negative, with an abstract noun as object ).
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
  • , chapter=6, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied. His manner and appearance were suggestive of a satiated sea-lion.}}
  • * 2005 , Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World , Harper:
  • Nevertheless, Garcilaso does claim that the Spaniards ‘who were unable to brook the length of the discourse, had left their places and fallen on the Indians’.
    Derived terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A body of running water smaller than a river; a small stream.
  • *Bible, (w) viii. 7
  • *:The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:empties itself, as doth an inland brook / into the main of waters
  • *
  • *:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶.
  • A water meadow.
  • Low, marshy ground.
  • Synonyms
    * beck * burn * coulee * creek * stream

    fish

    English

    {{ picdic , image=Clupea harengus (Pieni).jpg , detail1= , detail2= }}

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (compare (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m).

    Noun

  • (countable) A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.
  • Salmon is a fish .
    The Sun Mother created all the fishes of the world.
    The Sun Mother created all the fish of the world.
    We have many fish in our aquarium.
  • Any animal that lives exclusively in water.
  • * 1774 , Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature , Volume IV:
  • The whale, the limpet, the tortoise and the oyster… as men have been willing to give them all the name of fishes , it is wisest for us to conform.
  • (uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.
  • *
  • The seafood pasta had lots of fish but not enough pasta.
  • (countable) A period of time spent fishing.
  • The fish at the lake didn't prove successful.
  • (countable) An instance of seeking something.
  • Merely two fishes for information told the whole story.
  • (uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain cards in pairs or sets of four (depending on the variation), by asking the other players for cards of a particular rank.
  • (uncountable, derogatory, slang) A woman.
  • (countable, slang) An easy victim for swindling.
  • (countable, poker slang) A bad poker player.
  • (countable, nautical) A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.
  • (nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.
  • (countable, nautical) A torpedo.
  • * 1977 , (w, Richard O'Kane), Clear the Bridge: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang , Ballantine Books (2003), page 344:
  • The second and third fish went to the middle of her long superstructure and under her forward deck.
  • (zoology) A polyphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:
  • # Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebra)
  • # Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)
  • # Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda)
  • ## Class Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays
  • ## Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fish.
  • Usage notes
    The collective plural of fish'' is always ''fish'' in the UK; in the US, ''fishes'' is encountered as well. When referring to two or more kinds of fish, the plural is ''fishes .
    Synonyms
    * (potential swindling victim) mark * (card game) Go Fish * (bad poker player) donkey, donk
    Derived terms
    {{der3, big fish in a small pond , bony fish , cold fish , dragonfish , drink like a fish , fish and chips , fish bowl/fishbowl , fishbrain , fishcake , fisher , fisherman , fish-eating grin , fish finger , fishful , fishgig , fish hook/fishhook , fishkill , fish ladder, fishway , fishless , fishlike , fishling , fishly , fishmeal , fishmonger , fishmoth , fish out of water , fish paste/fishpaste , fish pond/fishpond , fishpound , fishpox , fishroom , fish sauce , fishskin , fishskin disease , fish slice , fish supper , fishtail , fish tank/fishtank , fish tape , fishwife , fishwoman , fishworm , fishy , , goatfish , goldfish , have other fish to fry , like shooting fish in a barrel , jellyfish , lumpfish , overfish , queer fish , sailfish , shellfish , silverfish , starfish , neither fish nor fowl , surgeonfish , swim like a fish , there's plenty more fish in the sea , tuna fish}}
    Hyponyms
    * (aquatic cold-blooded vertabrae with gills) Cephalaspidomorphi, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes * (food) seafood
    See also
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (es)
  • To try to catch fish, whether successfully or not.
  • She went to the river to fish for trout.
  • To try to find something other than fish in (a body of water).
  • They fished the surrounding lakes for the dead body.
  • To attempt to find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.
  • Why are you fishing through my things?
    He was fishing for the keys in his pocket.
  • To attempt to obtain information by talking to people.
  • The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.
  • (cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.
  • To attempt to gain.
  • The actors loitered at the door, fishing for compliments.
  • (nautical) To repair a spar or mast using a brace often called a fish (see NOUN above).
  • * 1970 , James Henderson, The Frigates, an account of the lesser warships of the wars from 1793 to 1815 , Wordsworth (1998), page 143:
  • the crew were set to replacing and splicing the rigging and fishing the spars.
    Synonyms
    * (try to catch a fish) angle, drop in a line * (try to find something) rifle, rummage * angle
    Derived terms
    {{der3, fishable , fisher , fishery , fishline , fishnet/fishnet stockings , fish out}}

    Etymology 3

    .

    Noun

    (es)
  • (obsolete) A counter, used in various games.
  • (Webster 1913)