fishy
/ˈfɪʃi
/adjective (fishier, fishiest)
1Relating to or resembling fish or a fish: a fishy smell...
- It's a delicate white fish that's less fishy and less oily than the kind of catfish that usually gets drowned in chili powder.
- It wasn't the most flavourful piece of salmon I have ever eaten, but, then again, if you want a fishy fish, you don't choose salmon.
- It looked quite fishy, but no fish I know wobbles back and forth in spongy fashion when you try to cut it.
Synonyms
fishlike, piscine, of fish
2 informal Arousing feelings of doubt or suspicion: I’m convinced there is something fishy going on...
- That doesn't mean, of course, that you should give the next wonderful scientific speaker you hear a fishy glance of suspicion.
- He comes home too late, he gives fishy excuses, a strange woman called the other night and hung up when Patty picked up the extension.
- Some of its doctors were implicated in the murder of their staff members who had suspected something fishy about the whole thing.
Synonyms
suspicious, questionable, dubious, doubtful, suspect;
odd, queer, peculiar, strange, not quite right;
mysterious, murky, dark, shifty, disreputable, underhand
informal funny, shady, crooked, bent, not kosher, off
British informal dodgy
Australian/New Zealand informal shonky
Derivatives
fishily
/ adverbfishiness
- For once the suspicions about the fishiness of the outcome are correct, but not in any pejorative sense.
- I specifically mentioned the extreme fishiness of resetting my password to ‘password’.
- In fact it is uncannily like the real thing in appearance, but the taste lacks the level of saltiness and fishiness you would find in the genuine article.