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vocabulary
1000+ books

ferret out
in a sentence

show 46 more with this conextual meaning
  • If I were a member of the class that rules, I would post men in all the neighborhoods of the nation, not to spy upon or club rebellious workers, not to break strikes or disrupt unions; but to ferret out those who no longer respond to the system in which they live.   (source)
    ferret out = search for and discover through persistent investigation
  • Yes — yes — the end is not so difficult; if I had only a brain active enough to ferret out the means of attaining it.   (source)
    ferret out = discover through persistent investigation
  • Before, when Enrique told her he was clean, she could ferret out the truth for herself.†   (source)
  • He refills my drink without me having to ask, somehow ferreting out one last cup of the good stuff.†   (source)
  • When Farmer first saw this piece of Haiti and began to ferret out its history, old-timers talked longingly to him about the days before the water rose, when families lived on farms beside the river and everyone had enough to eat and something left over to sell.†   (source)
  • If anyone's going to ferret out what you're up to, she's the one.†   (source)
  • Queen Bella was the only one who bothered ferreting out his meanings anymore.†   (source)
  • It is never likely that you will succeed in ferreting out the secrets of the past.†   (source)
  • She would also apply the research skills she'd honed in graduate school to ferreting out funding opportunities and grants for the program.†   (source)
  • Barbara heard the grumbles and tried to ferret out the sources.†   (source)
  • Because practically no one in the entire nation agreed with the occupation regime, the Russians had to ferret out the few exceptions and push them into power.†   (source)
  • A staff of twenty-five screeners with PhDs in related fields scoured thousands of incoming threads and passed on any that fit the primary model that Raison Pharmaceutical had established to ferret out an antivirus.†   (source)
  • As if by rote, both Conklin and the Russian immediately began examining the tables, ferreting out handwritten notes, a number of which were beside a mother-of-pearl telephone on top of a curved, thick dark green table of sorts.†   (source)
  • I used the less-blinding illumination to examine the ceiling, trying to ferret out its secret.†   (source)
  • My only hope is to ferret out exactly who I am.†   (source)
  • She could count on Feeney to work on ferreting out any details that might weaken the case against Mavis.†   (source)
  • Perhaps the Admiral's looking for someone else to help him ferret out the killer.   (source)
    ferret out = search for and discover through persistent investigation
  • And someone to ferret out the wolf in the herd.   (source)
  • Ought to ferret out the mystery before we go.   (source)
    ferret out = discover through persistent investigation
  • She found her shoulder bag, ferreted out a toothbrush, and went to the bathroom.†   (source)
  • The prospect that truly excites me, though, is of using magic to ferret out nature's secrets.†   (source)
  • Use them to ferret out the rest of the agents.†   (source)
  • When she worked as a researcher for Dragan Armansky at Milton Security, she had never minded having a long conversation if it was to ferret out facts.†   (source)
  • And now those high school history lessons also seemed strikingly incomplete, all but devoid of explanations for the terms "Hutu" and "Tutsi," and of facts that Deo gradually ferreted out.†   (source)
  • I'm going to wash, find a tunic, and then check with Baldor and see if he's ferreted out any more of Galbatorix's killers.†   (source)
  • Ferreting out other magicians' enchantments grew vastly more difficult if they had tried to hide their work.†   (source)
  • She would remind them of what she had to go through to get asylum in the United States—the countless interviews with UN officials and their attempts to ferret out lies and exaggerations by asking her the same questions over and over again, sometimes months apart—and of all the worry she had that some small mistake, some forgetful error, would doom them to that refugee camp for years more.†   (source)
  • "They do, but even among our allies there are more than a few people who would give their right arm"-he grimaced at the appropriateness of the phrase-"to ferret out our plans and secrets.†   (source)
  • Still, Feeney, with his electronic expertise, had ferreted out some of Roarke's closer business associates, and none had wanted to risk offending someone of Roarke's stature with a refusal.†   (source)
  • So I should ferret out his background.†   (source)
  • Mehlinger has become a wizard at ferreting out suppliers for hard-to-find culinary offerings from around the world.†   (source)
  • "And what mischief," asked Orik, "have you two managed to ferret out of Oromis and yon bucolic woods?"†   (source)
  • Under my guidance, they have provided the means to fund the Varden's war effort, ferreted out the Black Hand-Galbatorix's network of spies that tried to assassinate Nasuada-as well as performing innumerable other services.†   (source)
  • It's quite possible that you might ferret out a case against him.†   (source)
  • Though a young man, I have ferreted out evidence, got up cases, and seen lots of life.†   (source)
  • "Ferreting in one's soul, one often ferrets out something that might have lain there unnoticed.†   (source)
  • That devil of a Marius has ferreted out the nest of a millionaire grisette in his tree of dreams!†   (source)
  • They ferreted out a thermos of hot coffee, and he looked at her as though he was going to kiss her, and she looked back at him as though she did not mind.†   (source)
  • With Petersburg as home base, he had traveled the length and breadth of Russia, visiting insured factories and ferreting out those in dubious financial condition—because statistics showed that fires occurred most often in factories where business was going badly.†   (source)
  • His instinct perceived the fetidness of poverty, but no longer ferreted out the deeper evils in pride and sensuality.†   (source)
  • …pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.†   (source)
  • The dry leaves in the ditch simmered and boiled in the same breezes, a tongue of air occasionally ferreting out a few, and sending them spinning across the grass.†   (source)
  • He had "ferreted out" nothing.†   (source)
  • That Providence, however, had put it into the heart of a person who was beyond fear and beyond reproach, to ferret out the nature of the prisoner's schemes, and, struck with horror, to disclose them to his Majesty's Chief Secretary of State and most honourable Privy Council.†   (source)
  • For many years past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth.†   (source)
  • Moreover, Paris was not tranquil: political troubles presented this inconvenient feature, for any one who had anything to conceal in his life, that the police had grown very uneasy and very suspicious, and that while seeking to ferret out a man like Pepin or Morey, they might very readily discover a man like Jean Valjean.†   (source)
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