goldfish

[ gohld-fish ]

noun,plural (especially collectively) gold·fish, (especially referring to two or more kinds or species) gold·fish·es.
  1. a small, usually yellow or orange fish, Carassius auratus, of the carp family, native to China, bred in many varieties and often kept in fishbowls and pools.

Origin of goldfish

1
First recorded in 1690–1700; gold + fish

Words Nearby goldfish

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use goldfish in a sentence

  • There are clumps of ornamental wood, flower-beds, and artificial ponds with goldfish swimming in them.

    Belgium | George W. T. (George William Thomson) Omond
  • My waif was curled up in my kimono, feeding my fan-tailed goldfish.

    Jane Journeys On | Ruth Comfort Mitchell
  • Already the boy could take a pair of rabbits out of a high hat, or change a bunch of carrots into a bowl of goldfish.

    Seeing Things at Night | Heywood Broun
  • A good name, he seems to believe, is something which a woman carries tightly clasped in both arms like a bowl of goldfish.

    Seeing Things at Night | Heywood Broun
  • He said that when he grew up he was going to be a merchant, and he had already begun to carry on a trade in canaries and goldfish.

    Beautiful Joe | Marshall Saunders

British Dictionary definitions for goldfish

goldfish

/ (ˈɡəʊldˌfɪʃ) /


nounplural -fish or -fishes
  1. a freshwater cyprinid fish, Carassius auratus, of E Europe and Asia, esp China, widely introduced as a pond or aquarium fish. It resembles the carp and has a typically golden or orange-red coloration

  2. any of certain similar ornamental fishes, esp the golden orfe: See orfe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012