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Fish vs Ferret - What's the difference?

fish | ferret |

As a proper noun fish

is .

As a noun ferret is

an often domesticated mammal rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals or ferret can be (dated) a tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc or along the edge of fabric.

As a verb ferret is

to hunt game with ferrets.

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
    Related terms
    * (adj) piscine, ichthyic, ichthyal (formal), fishy * (astronomical) The Fish, Pisces * (collective) piscifauna * (combinatorial form) ichthyo- (qualifier), pisci- (qualifier) * (fish-catcher) See fisher * (fish-eater) ichthyophage * (fish fossil) ichthyolite * (fish-infesting) piscolous * (fish-killing) piscicidal * (fish-like) icthyoid (formal), piscose (culinary), fishy, fishlike * (fish science) ichthyology (proper), piscatology * (fish scientist) ichthyologist * (fish shape) ichthus * (fish-shaped) pisciform, ichthyoid, ichthyomorphic * (fish vendor) fishmonger, piscitarian * (full of fish) pisculent * ichthyarchy * (skin disorder) ichthyosis (formal), fish-skin disease, porcupine disease * (state of being a fish) piscinity (formal), fishiness * (writer on fish) ichthyographer * (writing on fish) ichthyography
    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)

    External links

    {{projectlinks , disambig , pedia , page3=fish (food) , page4=fishing , pedia , pedia}} English invariant nouns English nouns with irregular plurals

    ferret

    English

    (wikipedia ferret)

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) furet, ferret, from (etyl) firet, furet, diminutive of (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An often domesticated mammal rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals.
  • The (black-footed ferret), .
  • A diligent searcher.
    • Synonyms
    * (domesticated polecat) Mustela putorius furo

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hunt game with ferrets.
  • To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out .
  • * Shakespeare
    • Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • She ferreted in her bag; then held it up mouth downwards; then fumbled in her lap, all so vigorously that Charles Steele in the Panama hat suspended his paint-brush.

    See also

    *

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) fioretto

    Noun

  • (dated) A tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc. or along the edge of fabric.
  • * Charles Dickens, Bleak House
    • red tape and green ferret
    ----