I have other fish to fry
Preserved but no longer current.
I am busy and cannot attend to anything else just now. Neither fish, flesh, nor fowl ; or neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. Suitable to no class of people; neither one thing nor another. Not fish (food for the monk), not flesh (food for the people generally), nor yet red herring (food for paupers).
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 “I have other fish to fry” mean?
I am busy and cannot attend to anything else just now. Neither fish, flesh, nor fowl ; or neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. Suitable to no class of people; neither one thing nor another. Not fish (food for the monk), not flesh (food for the people generally), nor yet red herring (food for paupers).
Is “I have other fish to fry” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.