Definition of "whitefish"

whitefish

noun
plural whitefishes or whitefish
1. Any of many fish.
  1. Any of several North American freshwater fish, of the genus Coregonus, used as food.
  2. Any of several other fish, such as whiting (Merlangius merlangus) or menhaden (Brevoortia spp. and Ethmidium spp.).
  3. (cooking, fishing) Any of several species of demersal fish with fins, particularly cod, whiting, and haddock, as opposed to the oily or pelagic fishes.
2. The beluga (both the sturgeon and the whale)
verb
third-person singular simple present whitefishes, present participle whitefishing, simple past and past participle whitefished
1. To fish for whitefish.
  Quotations
  “Perhaps he went whitefishing after he had his supper.”
  1894, Mary Hartwell Catherwood, “The Windigo”, in The Chase of Saint-Castin and Other Stories of the French in the New World, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Cambridge: The Riverside Press, page 169
  “Bill” is said to have whitefished on the lake since Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox first plowed it out.
  1932 March 6, “Fishing Through Ice Is Thrill”, in The Spokesman-Review, 49th year, number 297, Spokane, Wash., part four, page 1
  Beth and I whitefished in the broken ice along the banks of the Clark, a fire of driftwood roaring in the wind with the coffeepot set among the coals.
  1986, James Lee Burke, The Lost Get-Back Boogie, Baton Rouge, La., London: Louisiana State University Press, page 213