ferret out

phrasal verb

ferreted out; ferreting out; ferrets out
: to find (something, such as information) by careful searching
He's good at ferreting out the facts.

Examples of ferret out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web All of the convictions occurred in Florida, Texas and Ohio, while units in Virginia, Georgia and Arkansas failed to obtain a single guilty verdict, despite allocating dozens of staffers and millions of dollars to ferret out voter fraud. Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2023 After Arthur Andersen’s demise, clients were forced to find new accounting firms—and the new auditors would have extra incentive to ferret out any wrongdoing. Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 30 Nov. 2023 Right now, media-forensics specialists are racing to develop technologies to ferret out fakes. Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 Instead of prompting humility, this confusion has fed Western analysts’ and policymakers’ determination to ferret out the motives behind Russian behavior. Sam Greene, Foreign Affairs, 22 Sep. 2023 Most fire testing involves ferreting out faults in individual battery cells—something the industry, which makes millions of those cells each year for all kinds of energy applications, does well, explains Rein. Gregory Barber, WIRED, 8 Sep. 2023 The group began spending dozens of hours each week navigating the byzantine web of network infrastructure, trying to ferret out connections between no-name intermediaries to track down Kiwi Farms’s new home. Nitasha Tiku, Washington Post, 3 Sep. 2023 The photos and videos taken by Hijazi and others have become part of a massive archive that continues to grow, as Syrian exiles and human rights groups ferret out new evidence, including forensics studies and government documents smuggled out of the country by defectors. Joby Warrick, Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2023 Since taking over he’s transformed the influential site, laying off much of its staff, including workers dedicated to ferreting out misinformation and hate speech. Alanna Durkin Richer, Anchorage Daily News, 9 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ferret out.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Ferret out.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ferret%20out. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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