Meanings
- neologismuncountableThe act of pretending to be from a city that one is dating in.
If it take three trains or a “red eye” flight to get to the date, you know someone’s hoodfishing — a cousin to catfishing, in which someone makes a fake online persona to lure in romantic interests, he noted.
2024 August 10, Deirdre Bardolf, “What is 'hoodfishing'? The sneaky new trend singles are trying to cast a wider net in NYC”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Sep 20242 more examples
According to Jared Freid, a 39-year-old comedian and co-host of the dating podcast "U Up?," this is known as hoodfishing, a coinage — though not his own — referring to people claiming to be from the city they are dating in but really are living somewhere else entirely.
2024 August 29, Gina Cherelus, “The Irresistible Urge to Change Your Location on a Dating App”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2024On Bumble, virtual location hopping is common, and hoodfishing—when users seem local but are actually far away—can complicate your search for nearby matches. Be mindful and take extra steps to ensure the profiles you connect with are genuine.
2025 November 29, Chris Pleines, “Bumble Review November 2025”, in Dating Scout, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2025
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of hoodfish
Origin
Cite this entry
hoodfishing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoodfishing
“hoodfishing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoodfishing. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hoodfishing,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoodfishing.
Source: hoodfishing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.