- English translation
Like fish swimming in water: all mixed together, with no way to see what goes on among them.
- Literal wording
Fish in water.
- Meaning and lesson
The picture is of many fish moving together beneath the surface, where an onlooker cannot follow any single one or see what passes between them. It describes a state of dense intermingling in which the details stay out of view.
Applied to people or matters, it points to a situation so mixed and opaque that events inside it cannot be traced or verified. It does not mean being at ease, as the English 'like a fish in water' does.
- When it is used
Suited to describing a crowd, group, or set of affairs so closely intermingled that an outsider cannot make out what passes among them. Keep the focus on blending and hiddenness, not on someone being comfortable in their surroundings.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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