expiscate

[ek-spuh-skeyt, ek-spis-keyt]

verb (used with object)

Chiefly Scot.

expiscated, expiscating 

1. to find out by thorough and detailed investigation; discover through scrupulous examination.

Other Word Forms

• expiscation noun
• expiscatory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of expiscate¹

1605–15; < Latin expiscātus, past participle of expiscārī to fish out. See ex- ¹, pisci-, -ate ¹

Example Sentences

We may as well expiscate this point here.

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Expiscate, eks-pis′kāt, v.t. to find out by skilful means or by strict examination.—n.

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He has no exculpatory witnesses; he has had no time to expiscate facts; the evidence for the prosecution is handed to him in court; and he can make only such observations as occur at the moment, knowing all the while that the prisoner's fate is already determined on.

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Tom vanished, like Aubrey's apparition, with a melodious twang, and a perceptible odour of tar; and so, being determined to expiscate the matter, I proceeded towards the Broomielaw, and in due time became master of the locality of the Cat and Bagpipes.

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We might write volumes, and search every volume that has been written on the subject, and we could expiscate nothing else than that from the beginning of the world, and we may say in every country in the world, there has been, under different names and forms, a very general belief in some supernatural power walking abroad on the earth, by which, when presuming on its possession, one man may rule over another to his own hurt or benefit, as the case may be.

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