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WORD OF THE DAY: FERRET
verb | FAIR-ut
What It Means
To ferret means to find something, such as information, by careful searching. It is usually followed by the word out.
// We love having her in our study group because she’s good at ferreting out the answers to the study guide.
Examples of FERRET
“The St. John’s coach was captured on ABC cameras at the Garden for Game 4 between the Knicks and Cavaliers on Sunday, allowing some enterprising lip readers to ferret out the digits he was giving to someone.” — Michael Blinn, The New York Post, 25 Apr. 2023.
Did You Know?
Since the 14th century, English speakers have used ferret as the name of a small, slinky, domesticated mammal of the weasel family. The word came to us by way of Anglo-French and can be traced back to the Latin word fur, meaning “thief.” These days ferrets are often kept as pets, but previously they were used to hunt rabbits, rats, and other vermin, and to drive them from their underground burrows. By the 15th century, the verb ferret was being used for the action of hunting with ferrets. By the late 16th century, the verb had taken on figurative uses as well. Today, we most frequently encounter the verb ferret in the sense of “to find and bring to light by searching.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
