Meanings
- UKdatedAn odd or eccentric person.
Harry is a queer fish indeed. He is suspicious of everybody and everything.
1974 April 21, Vincent Canby, “Movie Review: The Conversation”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 Feb 20142 more examples
He’s known amongst us as the Arab. I’ve had my eye on him ever since he came to the place. A queer fish he is. I always have said that he’s up to some game or other.
1897, Richard Marsh, The BeetleTo these people, native and European, he was a queer fish, but they were used to queer fish, and they took him for granted; the world was full of odd persons, who did odd things; and perhaps they knew that a man is not what he wants to be, but what he must be.
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 54”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLCSynonyms: odd fish, strange fish, weirdo
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn odd or eccentric person.
Cite this entry
queer fish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/queer%20fish
“queer fish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/queer%20fish. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “queer fish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/queer%20fish.
Source: queer fish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.