queer fish

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English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkwiːɹˌfɪʃ/
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Noun

queer fish (plural queer fish)

  1. (dated, chiefly British) An odd or eccentric person.
    • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
      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.
    • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 54”, in The Moon and Sixpence, : Grosset & Dunlap Publishers , →OCLC:
      To 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.
    • 1974 April 21, Vincent Canby, “Movie Review: The Conversation”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 February 2014:
      Harry is a queer fish indeed. He is suspicious of everybody and everything.

Synonyms

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia