Englishferret
verb
1 she ferreted in her handbag:
rummage, search about, scrabble around, feel around, grope around, forage around, fish about, fish around, poke about, poke around, scratch about, scratch around, delve, dig, hunt;
search through, hunt through, rifle through, sift through, go through, scour, ransack, explore;
British, informal rootle around;
Australian, New Zealand, informal fossick through;
rare roust around.
2 our headmistress was good at ferreting out misdemeanors:
unearth, uncover, discover, detect, search out, elicit, bring to light, bring into the open, reveal, get at, run to earth, track down, turn up, dig up, dig out, root out, hunt out, fish out, nose out, sniff out;
informal get wind of, get wise to, rumble;
rare uncloak.
| word links | ferret |
male female young collective noun | |
ferret Oxford Dictionary of English