catfishing

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Catfishing is pretending online to be somebody you are not. A catfishing scam, victim of catfishing, catfishing on dating apps.

It became a criminal matter as it moved from cruelty to fraud, and romance scams built on it take enormous sums from people who are lonely rather than foolish. The word comes from a 2010 documentary and the story it told about the name.

Definitions of catfishing

1nouncatfishingPretending online to be somebody you are not.C1
“He realised he was a victim of catfishing when the woman he'd been messaging turned out to be a man.”

catfishing is a deception.

Where it comes from

catfish comes from cat + fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers. Compare West Frisian katfisk (“catfish”), Dutch katvis (“catfish”). Compare also German Seekatze (“catfish”) literally “sea-cat”.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music, Art & Culture, News & Communication

Practise this word

catfishing in the wild

To create a romantic connection with someone, for example catfishing.
Impersonator
In 2021, she entered the Channel 4 series The Celebrity Circle for Stand Up to Cancer, catfishing as Big Narstie, and won.
Lady Leshurr
The motivation for catfishing may also be just the desire to feel more popular or to experiment with sexual preferences.
Catfishing
Public awareness surrounding catfishing has increased in recent years, partially attributed to an increase in the occurrence of the practice combined with a number of high-profile instances.
Catfishing
On 15 March 2021, the series was won by Lady Leshurr, who had played the game catfishing as Big Narstie.
The Celebrity Circle

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary