talking catfish

noun

Any of the catfishes of the family Doradidae, able to produce sound by moving their pectoral spine or vibrating their swim bladder.

Meanings

nountalking catfish (plural talking catfishes or talking catfish)

plural talking catfishes

  1. Any of the catfishes of the family Doradidae, able to produce sound by moving their pectoral spine or vibrating their swim bladder.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see talking, catfish.

    It involves a princess despondent over her looks who is literally seduced by a talking catfish.

    2017, Jim VandenBosch, ““Heaven Is Overrated”: Two Movies That Posit Life Beyond Death”, in The Gerontologist, volume 57, number 5, Oxford University Press US, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 998–1000
    1 more example

    In one of the few unexpected moments in the film, she then consummates her newfound freedom in a brief but apparently satisfying cross-species love affair with a talking catfish.

    2012 March 12, Angela O'Hara, “Mysterious Object of Desire: The Haunted Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul”, in Philippa Gates, Lisa Funnell, editors, Transnational Asian Identities in Pan-Pacific Cinemas: The Reel Asian Exchange (Routledge Advances in Film Studies), Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

talking catfish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/talking%20catfish

MLA

“talking catfish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/talking%20catfish. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “talking catfish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/talking%20catfish.

Source: talking catfish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.