"kettle of fish" meaning in English

See kettle of fish in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-kettle of fish.ogg [Australia] Forms: kettles of fish [plural]
Etymology: From kettle, a variant of kiddle, a weir or fence of stakes in a stream used to catch fish. Etymology templates: {{m|en||kettle}} kettle, {{m|en|kiddle}} kiddle Head templates: {{en-noun|kettles of fish}} kettle of fish (plural kettles of fish)
  1. (idiomatic) An awkward situation. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: can of worms, predicament, difficult situation
    Sense id: en-kettle_of_fish-en-noun-b~6NHb6A
  2. (idiomatic) A situation recognized as different from or as an alternative to some other situation. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: ball game, horse of a different color, pair of shoes Translations (different or alternative situation): toinen asia (Finnish), eri asia (Finnish), liemi (Finnish), autre paire de manches (French), inna para kaloszy [feminine] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-kettle_of_fish-en-noun-mTnLUAcB Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 18 82 Disambiguation of 'different or alternative situation': 40 60
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: kiddle of fish, kittle of fish, keddle of fish

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for kettle of fish meaning in English (3.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "kettle"
      },
      "expansion": "kettle",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kiddle"
      },
      "expansion": "kiddle",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From kettle, a variant of kiddle, a weir or fence of stakes in a stream used to catch fish.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "kettles of fish",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "kettles of fish"
      },
      "expansion": "kettle of fish (plural kettles of fish)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Ellen Raskin, chapter 13, in The Westing Game",
          "text": "\"That's a fine kettle of fish,\" he exclaimed, then turned to his dinner companion. \"Fine kettle of fish. I'm so hungry even that sounds good, and from the looks of this menu that's probably what I'll get.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An awkward situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-kettle_of_fish-en-noun-b~6NHb6A",
      "links": [
        [
          "awkward",
          "awkward"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) An awkward situation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "can of worms"
        },
        {
          "word": "predicament"
        },
        {
          "word": "difficult situation"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "18 82",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "That is another kettle of fish entirely.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 November 29, Richard Foster, “Tyne & Wear Metro goes with the flow”, in RAIL, number 997, page 34",
          "text": "Network Rail would have faced a bigger issue. Maintaining the track for one freight train a day is one thing - doing so for 200 passenger trains a day was a very different kettle of fish.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation recognized as different from or as an alternative to some other situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-kettle_of_fish-en-noun-mTnLUAcB",
      "links": [
        [
          "different",
          "different"
        ],
        [
          "alternative",
          "alternative"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A situation recognized as different from or as an alternative to some other situation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ball game"
        },
        {
          "word": "horse of a different color"
        },
        {
          "word": "pair of shoes"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "different or alternative situation",
          "word": "toinen asia"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "different or alternative situation",
          "word": "eri asia"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "different or alternative situation",
          "word": "liemi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "different or alternative situation",
          "word": "autre paire de manches"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "different or alternative situation",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "inna para kaloszy"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-kettle of fish.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bf/En-au-kettle_of_fish.ogg/En-au-kettle_of_fish.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/En-au-kettle_of_fish.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "kiddle of fish"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "kittle of fish"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "keddle of fish"
    }
  ],
  "word": "kettle of fish"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "kettle"
      },
      "expansion": "kettle",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kiddle"
      },
      "expansion": "kiddle",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From kettle, a variant of kiddle, a weir or fence of stakes in a stream used to catch fish.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "kettles of fish",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "kettles of fish"
      },
      "expansion": "kettle of fish (plural kettles of fish)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Ellen Raskin, chapter 13, in The Westing Game",
          "text": "\"That's a fine kettle of fish,\" he exclaimed, then turned to his dinner companion. \"Fine kettle of fish. I'm so hungry even that sounds good, and from the looks of this menu that's probably what I'll get.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An awkward situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "awkward",
          "awkward"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) An awkward situation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "can of worms"
        },
        {
          "word": "predicament"
        },
        {
          "word": "difficult situation"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "That is another kettle of fish entirely.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 November 29, Richard Foster, “Tyne & Wear Metro goes with the flow”, in RAIL, number 997, page 34",
          "text": "Network Rail would have faced a bigger issue. Maintaining the track for one freight train a day is one thing - doing so for 200 passenger trains a day was a very different kettle of fish.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation recognized as different from or as an alternative to some other situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "different",
          "different"
        ],
        [
          "alternative",
          "alternative"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A situation recognized as different from or as an alternative to some other situation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "ball game"
        },
        {
          "word": "horse of a different color"
        },
        {
          "word": "pair of shoes"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-kettle of fish.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bf/En-au-kettle_of_fish.ogg/En-au-kettle_of_fish.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/En-au-kettle_of_fish.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "kiddle of fish"
    },
    {
      "word": "kittle of fish"
    },
    {
      "word": "keddle of fish"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "different or alternative situation",
      "word": "toinen asia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "different or alternative situation",
      "word": "eri asia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "different or alternative situation",
      "word": "liemi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "different or alternative situation",
      "word": "autre paire de manches"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "different or alternative situation",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "inna para kaloszy"
    }
  ],
  "word": "kettle of fish"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.