fish out of water

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fish out of water

Where it comes from

* Earliest recorded uses: "fish out of the water" (1585, Lamentable Complaint of Commonality), "Fishes out of the Water" (1613, Samuel Purchas, Pilgrimage).

* Earliest use of metaphor by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales: Prologue (c. 1405) as "fissh þᵗ is waterlees".

Compare also the antonymous French comme un poisson dans l'eau, German wie ein Fisch im Wasser.

noun fishes out of water · fish out of water

idiomatic A person in unfamiliar and often uncomfortable surroundings. [I]nto this queer assembly, something of a fish out of water and wholly out of his element, strode Cherry Bim, that redoubtable man.
Similar: square peg in a round hole

Translations

Every language

noun a person in unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable, surroundings

Español	como pez fuera del agua
日本語	陸に上がった河童 oka ni agatta kappa
Português	como peixe fora d'água
Deutsch	wie ein Fisch auf dem Trockenen, but less common, more usually sich fremd fühlen, sich nicht zu Hause fühlen
Italiano	pesce fuor d'acqua

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MLA

"fish out of water." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fish%20out%20of%20water. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

APA

fish out of water. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fish%20out%20of%20water

Chicago

"fish out of water." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fish%20out%20of%20water.

BibTeX

@misc{fish_out_of_water_2026,
  title = {fish out of water},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fish%20out%20of%20water},
  urldate = {2026-11-07}
}