fishmonger

plural fishmongers

1. UKA person who sells fish.

   If he made transcendental distinctions, he fortified himself by drawing all his illustrations from sources disdained by orators and polite conversers; from mares and puppies; from pitchers and soup-ladles; from cooks and criers; the shops of potters, horse-doctors, butchers, and fishmongers.

   1850, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Plato; or, The Philosopher”, in Representative Men: Seven Lectures, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, […], →OCLC, page 58

   Synonyms: fishman, ichthyopolist

2. UKrareA shop that sells fish; a fishmonger's shop, a fishmonger's.

   And Susan, sure of this inevitable answer, would ask Cook to pop into the fishmonger for a nice bit of salmon, […]

   1931, Grace Hegger Lewis, Half a Loaf, H. Liveright, page 225

   2 more examples

   A nice woman at the fishmonger in Earl’s Court Road—she had to walk miles to find a fish shop—told her how to cook the fillets of plaice she bought.

   1990, Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Light Years, Simon and Schuster, published 1995, →ISBN, page 294

   Cornish peppered mackerel, smoked haddock, Scottish herring and pearl-white skate wings are all laid on a bed of crushed ice at the fishmonger.

   2007, Leslie Ann Bosher, To the Manor Drawn, Murdoch Books, →ISBN, page 157

3. archaicfigurativelyA pimp.

   Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]