[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or fact of being fishy.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1812), II. 17. Its [the bittern’s] flesh has much the flavour of that of a hare; and nothing of the fishiness of that of the heron.
1834. Beckford, Italy, I. 30–1. I am not greatly surprised at the fishyness of their site, since very slight authority would persuade me there was a period when Holland was all water, and the ancestors of the present inhabitants fish.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxvi. (1856), 214. We are now very fond of seal-meat. It is far better than bear; and the fishiness, which at first disturbed us, is no longer disagreeable.
