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kettle of fish

ket·tle of fish
K k

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [ket-l uhv, ov fish]
    • /ˈkɛt l ʌv, ɒv fɪʃ/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [ket-l uhv, ov fish]
    • /ˈkɛt l ʌv, ɒv fɪʃ/

Definitions of kettle of fish words

  • noun kettle of fish an awkward, difficult, or bad situation; muddle; mess: He's managed to get himself into a fine kettle of fish! 1
  • noun kettle of fish a state of affairs; a matter under consideration: The new proposal is quite a different kettle of fish from the last one. 1
  • noun kettle of fish a situation; state of affairs (often used ironically in the phrase a pretty or fine kettle of fish) 0
  • noun kettle of fish case; matter for consideration 0
  • noun kettle of fish a difficult or embarrassing situation 0
  • noun kettle of fish a matter to be dealt with 0
See all 8 definitions of kettle of fish

Information block about the term

Origin of kettle of fish

First appearance:

before 1735
One of the 48% newest English words
First recorded in 1735-45

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Kettle of fish

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of Kettle of fish

kettle of fish popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 31% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.
According to our data about 64% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

kettle of fish usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for kettle of fish

noun kettle of fish

  • horse of a different color — a large, solid-hoofed, herbivorous quadruped, Equus caballus, domesticated since prehistoric times, bred in a number of varieties, and used for carrying or pulling loads, for riding, and for racing.
  • piece of business — business (def 10).
All 2 Synonyms of kettle of fish

See also

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