he eats no fish
Preserved but no longer current.
An Elizabethan way of say- ing that he is an honest man and one to be trusted, because he is not a papist. Roman Catholics were naturally opposed to the Government, and Protestants, to show their loyalty, refused to adopt their ritual custom of eating only fish on Fridays.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “he eats no fish” mean?
An Elizabethan way of say- ing that he is an honest man and one to be trusted, because he is not a papist. Roman Catholics were naturally opposed to the Government, and Protestants, to show their loyalty, refused to adopt their ritual custom of eating only fish on Fridays.
Is “he eats no fish” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.