Etymology From Middle English troute, troughte, trught, trouȝt, trouhte, partly from Old English truht (“trout”), and partly from Old French truite; both from Late Latin tructa, perhaps from Ancient Greek τρώκτης (trṓktēs, “nibbler”), from τρώγω (trṓgō, “to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, to turn”). The Internet verb sense originated on BBSes of the 1980s, probably from Monty Python's The Fish-Slapping Dance (1972), though that sketch involved a halibut.
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Any of several species of fish in Salmonidae, closely related to salmon, and distinguished by spawning more than once.
Many anglers consider trout to be the archetypical quarry.
Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
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“This morning,” he said, “We will fish, Turner. We will cast for trout so that we may catch grayling.”1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
Roman matrons, sexually exhausted, were fond of trout caught in a little stream in the Vosges Mountains.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 237:
It is not a crime to enjoy some bacon or a trout or what have you.2008, Christopher Paolini, “To Walk the Land Alone”, in Brisingr, page 73:
Look, you silly old trout, you can't keep bringing home cats! You can't afford the ones you have!
But French observers were perplexed not just by the Benny Hill-style frenzy, but by the ensuing British tabloid handwringing about how unfair it was that the UK's women ministers were such a load of ugly trouts compared to Sarkozy's sexy French ladies.2009 March 28, Angelique Chrisafis, “The mystery of the bikini-clad minister”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Etymology From Middle English troute, troughte, trught, trouȝt, trouhte, partly from Old English truht (“trout”), and partly from Old French truite; both from Late Latin tructa, perhaps from Ancient Greek τρώκτης (trṓktēs, “nibbler”), from τρώγω (trṓgō, “to gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, to turn”). The Internet verb sense originated on BBSes of the 1980s, probably from Monty Python's The Fish-Slapping Dance (1972), though that sketch involved a halibut.
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To fish for trout.
God bless me! is it possible that you, a tall fellow with a black moustache, can be the curly fair-haired boy I have so often carried on my back and saddle-bow, and taught to make flies of red spinner and drakes’ wings, when we trouted together at Llyn Cwellyn among the hills yonder?1871 October, James Grant, “Under the Red Dragon”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine, volume IX, chapter III (By Express), pages 251–252:
We found not more than three birds in any one place, and many times only one old bird, and this where we knew they had bred, for our pointer Rex found them while we were trouting.1908 January 18, Ernest M. Gross, “The Ruffed Grouse Scarcity”, in Forest and Stream: A Journal of Outdoor Life, Travel, Nature Study, Shooting, Fishing, Yachting, volume LXX, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., page 92, column 3:
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He didn’t want to go out on the water. I wouldn’t say he was afraid of it, because every time he was home he was always out in the boat trouting.1987, Douglas House, edited by Cle Newhook, But Who Cares Now? The Tragedy of the Ocean Ranger, St. John’s, Nfld.: Breakwater Books, →ISBN, page 36:
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To (figuratively) slap someone with a slimy, stinky, wet trout; to admonish jocularly.