Bones in dressed fish?

We had a BBQ at my roommate's father's place. On our way there, my roommate and I stopped at a supermarket to pick up some food for the BBQ. After we were done, while driving, he asked me:
"Are there bones in a dressed fish?"
"What?"
"I bought a dressed fish, so I'm thinking if the bones are out."
"Well, a 'whole' dressed fish means its guts are out. If you take the bones out, it's a fillet." Well, not exactly, but that's not the point and he got the picture. I must say I was a bit surprised because he didn't know what a (whole) dressed fish meant; I guess he just didn't care.
If you have no idea what we were talking about, take a look at this old blog of mine:
http://dunchee.blogspot.com/2007/05/blog-post_3113.html