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Fish vs Crab - What's the difference?

fish | crab |

In intransitive terms the difference between fish and crab

is that fish is to attempt to find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects while crab is to complain.

In transitive terms the difference between fish and crab

is that fish is to try to find something other than fish in (a body of water) while crab is to navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.

As a proper noun Fish

is {{surname|lang=en}.

fish

English

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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)

    crab

    English

    (wikipedia crab)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) crabbe, from (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=But Richmond
  • A bad-tempered person.
  • .
  • (label) A playing card with the rank of three.
  • (label) A position in rowing where the oar is pushed under the rigger by the force of the water.
  • A defect in an outwardly normal object that may render it inconvenient and troublesome to use.
  • * 1915 , , (Of Human Bondage) , :
  • -- "I suppose you wouldn't like to do a locum for a month on the South coast? Three guineas a week with board and lodging." -- "I wouldn't mind," said Philip. -- "It's at Farnley, in Dorsetshire. Doctor South. You'd have to go down at once; his assistant has developed mumps. I believe it's a very pleasant place." There was something in the secretary's manner that puzzled Philip. It was a little doubtful. -- "What's the crab in it?" he asked.
  • * 1940 , (Horace Annesley Vachell), Little Tyrannies
  • Arrested by the low price of another “desirable residence”, I asked “What's the crab'?” The agent assured me that there was no ' crab . I fell in love with this house at sight. Happily, I discovered that it was reputed to be haunted.
    Derived terms
    * Alaska crab, Alaska king crab, Alaskan king crab * arrow crab * black crab * blue crab * blue swimmer crab * box-crab * catch a crab * Chinese crab * Chinese mitten crab * Christmas Island red crab * circular crab * coconut crab * come off crabs * crabbed * crabber * crabbery * crabbing * crabbish * crabby * crab cactus * crab canon, crab-canon * crab-catcher * crab-claw * crab-eater * crab-eating * crab face, crab-face * crab-faced * crab-favored, crab-favoured * crab-farming * crab-fish * crab-grass, crabgrass * crab-harrow * crab-hole * crab-holed * crablet * crab-like, crablike * crabling * crab-lobster * crab louse, crab-louse * crab mentality * crabmeat * Crab Nebula * crabologist * crab-pot * crab-pot valve * crab rock * crab-roller * crab's claw * crab's eye, crab's-eye * crab-shell * crab-sidle * crab-snouted * crab spider, crab-spider * crab-step * crab stick * crab-stone * crab-weed * crabwise * crab yaws * cut a crab * Dungeness crab * fiddler crab * flower crab * ghost crab * green crab * halloween crab * hard-shell crab * hermit crab * horseshoe crab * Jonah crab * king crab, king-crab * lady crab * land crab, land-crab * mangrove crab * mantis crab * masked crab * mole crab * mud crab * nobody-crab * oyster crab * palm crab * pea crab, pea-crab * porcelain crab * purse crab * racing crab * river crab * robber-crab * rock crab * sand crab * sea-crab * sentinel crab * shame-faced crab * shore crab, shore-crab * soft-shell crab * soldier crab, soldier-crab * spider crab, spider-crab * stilt crab * stone crab * strawberry crab * Tasmanian giant crab * thumbnail crab * tree crab * turn out crabs * velvet crab * white crab

    Verb

  • To fish for crabs.
  • (transitive, US, slang) To ruin.
  • * 1940 , (Raymond Chandler), Farewell, My Lovely , Penguin 2010, p. 224:
  • ‘Just so we understand each other,’ he said after a pause. ‘If you crab this case, you'll be in a jam.’
  • To complain.
  • (intransitive, nautical, aviation) To drift sideways or to leeward (by analogy with the movement of a crab).
  • To navigate (an aircraft, e.g. a glider) sideways against an air current in order to maintain a straight-line course.
  • (obsolete, World War I), to fly slightly off the straight-line course towards an enemy aircraft, as the machine guns on early aircraft did not allow firing through the propeller disk.
  • (rare) To back out of something.
  • *
  • Derived terms
    * crabber * crabbing

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) crabbe, of Germanic origin, plausibly from Scandinavian, cognate with Swedish dialect scrabba

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The crab apple or wild apple.
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 2
  • I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
    And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts;
  • The tree bearing crab apples, which has a dogbane-like bitter bark with medical use.
  • A cudgel made of the wood of the crab tree; a crabstick.
  • (Garrick)
  • A movable winch or windlass with powerful gearing, used with derricks, etc.
  • A form of windlass, or geared capstan, for hauling ships into dock, etc.
  • A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.
  • A claw for anchoring a portable machine.
  • Synonyms
    * (crab apple) crab apple * (tree) crab apple
    Derived terms
    * cherry crab * Chinese crab * crab apple, crab-apple, crabapple * crab-bat * crab-knob * crab-staff * crab-stick, crabstick * crab-stock * crab-tree * garland crab * Siberian crab

    Verb

    (crabb)
  • (obsolete) To irritate, make surly or sour
  • To be ill-tempered; to complain or find fault.
  • * Glanvill
  • Sickness sours or crabs our nature.
  • (British dialect) To cudgel or beat, as with a crabstick
  • Etymology 3

    Possibly a corruption of the genus name

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The tree species , native of South America.
  • Derived terms
    * crab-nut * crab-oil

    Etymology 4

    Alternation of carabiner

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Short for carabiner.
  • References

    * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523 *

    Anagrams

    * * ----