Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To criticize and refute (a published article or argument), especially in point-by-point or line-by-line fashion on a blog.
  • intransitive verb To fisk an article or argument.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To rebut an argument line by line, especially on the Internet.
  • verb obsolete To run about; to frisk; to whisk.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Robert Fisk, (born 1946), British journalist, some of whose controversial reports on the Middle East were criticized on blogs.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from fisking.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare Swedish fjeska to bustle about.

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Examples

Comments

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  • the OED defines fisk as an intransitive verb: "To move briskly, scamper about, frisk, whisk; also with about, abroad, in and out, to and fro."

    April 4, 2007

  • In the U.K. this word is used to describe a point by point rebuttal of a contentious article. It came about because bloggers often took issue with articles by Robert Fisk (Middle East correspondent of the Independent), and the act of writting a rebuttal became known as Fisking.

    June 25, 2009