ferret out — (something) to discover something after careful searching. Officials say they will ferret out abuses in the welfare program. If you re looking for owners of abandoned property, it can take years to ferret them out … New idioms dictionary
ferret out — [v] trace, search out ascertain, be on to, bring to light*, chase, determine, dig up*, disclose, discover, drive out, elicit, extract, follow, get at*, hunt, learn, nose out*, penetrate, pick up on, pierce, probe, pry, pursue, quest, root out*,… … New thesaurus
ferret\ out — • ferret out literary • sniff out • smell out v To hunt or drive from hiding; to bring out into the open; search for and find. Jane smelled out the boys secret hiding place in the woods. John ferreted out the answer to the question in the library … Словарь американских идиом
ferret out — index ascertain, cross examine, delve, detect, discover, disinter, educe, find (discover) … Law dictionary
ferret out — vb *seek, search, scour, hunt, comb, ransack, rummage Analogous words: extract, elicit (see EDUCE): penetrate, pierce, probe (see ENTER) … New Dictionary of Synonyms
ferret out — phrasal verb [transitive] Word forms ferret out : present tense I/you/we/they ferret out he/she/it ferrets out present participle ferreting out past tense ferreted out past participle ferreted out to discover information by searching for it in a… … English dictionary
ferret out — PHRASAL VERB If you ferret out some information, you discover it by searching for it very thoroughly. [INFORMAL] [V P n (not pron)] The team is trying to ferret out missing details... [V n P] I leave it to the reader to ferret these out. Syn:… … English dictionary
ferret out something — ferret out (something) to discover something after careful searching. Officials say they will ferret out abuses in the welfare program. If you re looking for owners of abandoned property, it can take years to ferret them out … New idioms dictionary
ferret out — Synonyms and related words: ascertain, bring to light, cast about, chase, determine, dig out, dig up, disclose, discover, disinter, elicit, excavate, exhume, expose, extract, fish out, fish up, follow, grub up, hunt, hunt out, learn, nose out,… … Moby Thesaurus
ferret out — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) v. t. spy, fish, search, or hunt out. See inquiry. II (Roget s IV) v. Syn. unearth, search out, track down; see discover , hunt 2 . III (Roget s 3 Superthesaurus) v. search out, sniff out, root out, dig… … English dictionary for students
