queer fish

queer fish

Someone who is very strange. Primarily heard in UK. Everyone could tell he was a queer fish as soon as he walked into the party with his mismatched clothing.
See also: fish, queer
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

an ˌodd/a ˌqueer ˈfish

(old-fashioned, British English) a strange person: He’s an odd fish. He’s got a lot of very strange ideas.
See also: fish, odd, queer
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

queer fish

n. a strange person; an aloof person. She’s a bit odd. Sort of a queer fish.
See also: fish, queer
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • queer one
  • in Queer Street
  • an odd/a queer fish
  • be in Queer Street
  • be as daft as a brush
  • queer duck
  • strange bird
  • strange duck
  • fib
References in periodicals archive
Most of the lads have got you down as a bit of a queer fish...
This young upstart could go a long way
Now, seeing as this column, along with many others, has been urging RFC to assemble a proper website instead of inhabiting a dusty bit of cupboard space at the BHA, it feels a bit off to criticise it in any way whatsoever - but no-one could deny this is a queer fish.
Going for a wild trip with Racing For Change; INTERNET FOCUS Surfing the web from the comfort of the sofa with internet editor Robin Gibson
Spencer, as Francis describes him, was certainly a queer fish: "unable to experience love" out of fear that such a passion would "cause the reemergence" of his father's "aggression towards women", able to sympathize only with the sufferings of far-off people, a hypochondriac who believed sex to be "debilitating" and unpleasant and was appalled by the modern "work ethic" and disdainful of social proprieties as "among the greatest" evils, and who wrote his Autobiography as "an act of expiation" to warn others against suffering his own unhappy fate.
Francis, Mark. Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life
Queer Fish: Christian Unreason from Darwin to Derrida.
Queer Fish: Christian Unreason from Darwin to Derrida
What queer fish we humans are and how arbitrarily we alight on society's taboos.)
Just say yes to talking about heroin; How to Stop Time: Heroin from A to Z. By Ann Marlowe (Virago, pounds 12). Pornocopia: Porn, Sex, Technology and Desire. By Laurence O Toole (Serpent's Tail, pounds 9.99). Reviewed by Charlie Hill
Public joint-declarations are queer fish and the committees that excogitate them queerer still.
Das Glaubensbekenntnis von Nizaa-Konstantinopel. Historische und theologische Grundlagen
He's a full-blown, no-holds-barred, lock-stock-and-barrel queer fish.
Peter Thomas on Monday: Barts up for the Cup