[f. FISH sb.1 + DAY.] A day on which fish is eaten, usually in obedience to an ecclesiastical ordinance; a fast-day.

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a. 1327.  Pol. Songs (Camden), 151. Feyr on fyhshe day launprey ant lax.

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c. 1440.  Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 429. Take almondes and grynde hom when thai byn blounchet, and tempur hom, on fyssheday wyth wyn, and on flesheday with broth of flesh.

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1564.  Act 5 Eliz., c. 5. It shall not be lawfull … to eate any flesh vpon any dayes now vsually obserued as fish dayes, or vpon any Wednesday now newly limited to be obserued as fish day.

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1641.  ‘Smectymnuus,’ Vind. Answ., § 2. 12. In the Calendar Fish dayes are now called Fasting days.

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1699.  T. Brown, in R. L’Estrange, Colloq. Erasm. (1711), 358. If it happened to be a fish-day, we had sometimes three whitings.

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