fish out of water—n. phr. If you feel like “a fish out of water,” you’re in a place where you’re not comfortable. You’re not in the kind of place you usually are. This common idiom obviously pictures fish, which certainly are not comfortable on dry land. It has been traced back to the late 1300s.
After living in the country for so many years, Debby felt like a fish out of water in the city.
