ferret
verbEtymology From Middle English furet, ferret, from Old French furet, from Vulgar Latin *furittum (“weasel, ferret”), diminutive of Latin fūr (“thief”).
1
To hunt game with ferrets.
2
Ambitransitive, Broadly To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out.
- Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
- I confess that we were so unpopular with the outrageous mob, that I only got away from England at the risk of being ducked to death, and that Cly was so ferreted up and down, that he never would have got away at all but for that sham.1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities:
2 more examples
- He had been piqued by the failure of all his endeavors to ferret out the assassins.1842, Edgar Alan Poe, The Mistery of Marie Roget:
- She ferreted in her bag; then held it up mouth downwards; then fumbled in her lap, all so vigorously that Charles Steele in the Panama hat suspended his paint-brush.1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room:
- Derived terms
- ferret about, ferret around, ferret out