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# catfish

«catfish» in Mova's school dictionary: **a fish with long whiskers around its mouth, like a cat's** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a catfish, catfish); verb (catfish, catfishes, catfished, catfishing — slang)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A catfish is a fish with long whiskers around its mouth, like a cat's. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#m1)

2) (slang, online) To catfish someone means to pretend to be another person online, using a false name and photos, to trick them. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#m2)

3) (slang) A catfish is a person who does this. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science, river animals and habitats; in online-safety lessons, catfishing is a danger: people online may not be who they say; tell a trusted adult if something feels wrong.

### examples

- The catfish lives on the muddy river bottom. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#x1)
- A catfish has whiskers called barbels. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#x2)
- We caught a big catfish in the lake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#x3)
- He was catfished by someone pretending to be a twelve-year-old (slang). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#x4)
- Catfishing is when someone lies about who they are online. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#x5)
- Never meet an online friend without a parent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/#x6)

### note

Plural: catfish (same). Safety: catfishing is a serious online risk; never share personal details or photos with strangers online.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «catfish» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/catfish/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.