fishing definition

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃɪŋ
• Homophone: phishing

Etymology 1

From Middle English fischynge, equivalent to fish +‎ -ing.

Noun

fishing (countable and uncountable, plural fishings)

1. (uncountable) The act of catching fish.

   We had a good day's fishing at the weekend.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.

2. (uncountable, informal) The act of catching other forms of seafood, separately or together with fish.
4. (uncountable) Commercial fishing: the business or industry of catching fish and other seafood for sale.

   This is good news for the fishing industry.

5. (countable) A fishery, a place for catching fish.
   • 1633, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande  […], Dublin: […] Sir James Ware; reprinted as A View of the State of Ireland […], Dublin: […] the Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] By John Morrison, 1809:

     the rent of the fishings

   • 1917, The Scots Law Times (volume 2, page 190)

     Generally speaking, the only fishings which appear separately in Valuation Rolls as having a lettable value in their actual state from year to year are salmon-fishings.

Synonyms

• (act): piscatology, piscation, piscicide (pejorative), piscicapture, the gentle craft
• (business): fishery, the fish industry, the seafood industry
• (sport): sportfishing
• (place): See fishery

Translations

See also

• (adj): See fishing
• (adv): halieutically
• (science): halieutics, piscatology
• (writing on fishing): halieutics, piscatory

See also

• piscatorious, piscatory, piscatorial, piscatorical, piscatorian; piscatorially

Etymology 2

From fish +‎ -ing.

Verb

fishing

1. present participle of fish

Derived terms