Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
rough fish

rough fish

8.1
A fish people do not want to eat, catch, or use as bait
  • noun
  • /rʌf fɪʃ/
  • Jargon
translation icon : pez de desecho
  • Conservationists debate the management of native rough fish populations.
  • rough fish such as carp

Examples

  • Many anglers ignore rough fish while targeting more popular game species.

  • The lake is home to several types of rough fish that are not commonly eaten.

  • I caught a rough fish while fishing yesterday.

  • Many anglers avoid rough fish due to their taste.

  • Many anglers prefer to catch bass and trout rather than rough fish like carp.

  • During the fishing tournament, most participants aimed to avoid rough fish to improve their chances of winning.

  • The biologist explained how rough fish can impact the ecosystem if not managed properly.

Antonyms

game fish
  • Specialized
1 5.0

A fish that people catch for sport, not for food or money

Surface Forms

rough fish singular
rough fishes plural

Morphology

rough + fish

The sense 'a fish regarded as undesirable' is only partially derivable from 'rough' + 'fish' because 'rough' can suggest coarse or poor quality, but the specific technical/regional meaning in fisheries jargon is specialized and not fully predictable. A B1 learner who knows the words might guess a negative quality (e.g., a coarse or low-quality fish) but would be unlikely to reliably infer the exact idiomatic/regional usage without exposure.

Etymology

Rough fish comes from how people who fish would sort their catch: any fish seen as rough, coarse, small, or not tasty, was put aside. So, rough fish now means a fish people consider 'undesirable' for food, sport, or bait.