Dictionary

odd fish en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) An unusual thing or eccentric person.
   • For a country that is thought to have the best-regulated fisheries in the world, the US is an odd fish when it comes to mandatory safety requirements. It was only in 1988 that it became mandatory for US boats to carry safety equipment such as life rafts and an EPIRB, a locator beacon that should detach on sinking then float. 2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian:
   • We are constantly told how normal and honorable Thoreau was, yet it seems that we would get much further in understanding him if we began, by conceding that he was an odd fish, full of peculiar conceits. 2001, Paul Theroux, Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings, page 355:
   • The second work is more promising, but something of an odd fish: the anonymous German treatise Schwester Katrei. 2010, Stephen Mossman, Marquard von Lindau and the Challenges of Religious Life:

Forms

Synonyms

abnormality (unusual thing) · strange fish · deviant · outlier · weirdo · odd duck (eccentric person)