ferret

• enPR: fĕr'ət, IPA^(key): /ˈfɛɹɪt/

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• Rhymes: -ɛrɪt

Middle English furet, ferret, from Anglo-Norman firet, furet, diminutive of Old French fuiron (“weasel, ferret”), from Late Latin furo (“cat; robber”), diminutive of Latin fur (“thief”).

ferret (plural ferrets)

1. An often domesticated mammal (Mustela putorius furo) rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals.
2. The black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes.
3. A diligent searcher.
   • 1998 July 2, Charles Nicholl, "Screaming in the Castle" in the London Review of Books, Vol. XX, No. 13:

     The most challenging documentary discoveries were made by a tenacious archival ferret, Dr Antonio Bertoletti. In 1879 he published his findings in a slim, refreshingly dry volume, Francesco Cenci e la sua Famiglia.

ferret (third-person singular simple present ferrets, present participle ferreting, simple past and past participle ferreted)

1. To hunt game with ferrets.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out.
   • William Shakespeare

     Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

     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.

   • 1842, Edgar Alan Poe, The Mistery of Marie Roget

     He had been piqued by the failure of all his endeavors to ferret out the assassins.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     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.

Italian fioretto

ferret

1. (dated) A tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc. or along the edge of fabric.
   • Charles Dickens, Bleak House

     red tape and green ferret

• refret

From fer +‎ -et.

• IPA^(key): /fɛ.ʁɛ/

ferret m (plural ferrets)

1. (metal) tag; aglet, aiguillette

• “ferret” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

ferret

1. third-person singular imperfect active subjunctive of ferō