english
1
general::
Phrase(s): fish for something 1. Lit. to try to catch a particular kind of fish. • We are fishing for cod today, but we’ll take whatever we get. • We will fish for perch from the riverbank. 2. Fig. to seek some kind of information. • You could tell the lawyer was fishing for something from the vague way she asked the questions. • The telephone caller was fishing for too much information, so I hung up.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
1. Try to obtain something through artifice or indirectly. For example, He was always fishing for compliments, or, as William Makepeace Thackeray put it in Vanity Fair (1848): "The first woman who fishes for him, hooks him." [Mid-1500s] 2. Search for something, as in I've fished for it in all the drawers. [First half of 1700s]
American Heritage Idioms