English Idiom β A fish out of water.
Someone who feels uncomfortable or awkward because they are in an unfamiliar situation.
It’s your first day at a new school. You don’t know anyone, you don’t know where anything is, and everyone else seems to know exactly what to do. You feel like a fish out of water!
Imagine a goldfish flopping about on the kitchen table. It doesn’t belong there, and it definitely isn’t comfortable! That’s the picture behind this idiom. English speakers have compared an out-of-place person to a fish without water for centuries: “a fisshe out of the see” appears in the mid-1400s, and fish out of water in this sense is recorded by the 1610s.
How to Use It
- We usually say feel like a fish out of water: “I felt like a fish out of water at the party.”
- You can also say someone is or looks like a fish out of water: “He looked like a fish out of water in a suit and tie.”
- The idiom a fish out of water is also used for stories: a fish-out-of-water story is about someone in a strange new world, like a farmer in New York City.
Note: this idiom describes a temporary feeling. The person isn’t bad at something; they’re just not used to it yet!
More animal idioms: Kill Two Birds With One Stone, Cry Wolf and Dog Idioms.
Example:
- “On my first day at the new office, I felt like a fish out of water.”
- “I’m a city person, so on the farm I was a fish out of water.”
- “She felt like a fish out of water at the fancy restaurant. She didn’t know which fork to use!”
Learn More
Look it upFish: word origin and history β Etymonlineetymonline.comWhat is an idiom?
An idiom is a word or phrase that is not taken literally. An idiom is an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words, but has a separate meaning of its own.
Love animal idioms? See our full list of 50 animal idioms in English, with meanings and examples.
Frequently Asked Questions
It describes someone who feels uncomfortable or awkward because they are in a situation or place that is new and unfamiliar to them.
The most common pattern is “feel like a fish out of water”, for example: “I felt like a fish out of water on my first day at the new office.”
It comes from the simple picture of a fish on dry land: it does not belong there and cannot be comfortable. The figurative sense is recorded in English by the 1610s, and “a fisshe out of the see” is from the mid-1400s.
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