ferret
1 Americannoun
-
a domesticated, usually red-eyed, and albinic variety of the polecat, used in Europe for driving rabbits and rats from their burrows.
verb (used with object)
-
ferrets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ferreted,
past participle, past
-
ferreting
present participle
-
to drive out by using or as if using a ferret (often followed byout ).
to ferret rabbits from their burrows;
to ferret out enemies.
-
to hunt with ferrets.
-
to hunt over with ferrets.
to ferret a field.
-
to search out, discover, or bring to light (often followed byout ).
to ferret out the facts.
-
to harry, worry, or torment.
His problems ferreted him day and night.
verb (used without object)
-
ferrets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ferreted,
past participle, past
-
ferreting
present participle
noun
noun
-
a domesticated albino variety of the polecat Mustela putorius , bred for hunting rats, rabbits, etc
-
an assiduous searcher
-
a musteline mammal, Mustela nigripes , of W North America, closely related to the weasels
verb
-
to hunt (rabbits, rats, etc) with ferrets
-
to drive from hiding
to ferret out snipers
-
to find by persistent investigation
-
(intr) to search around
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ferretsimple
-
ferretssimple
-
have ferretedperfect
-
has ferretedperfect
-
am ferretingprogressive
-
are ferretingprogressive
-
is ferretingprogressive
-
have been ferretingperfect progressive
-
has been ferretingperfect progressive
Past
-
ferretedsimple
-
had ferretedperfect
-
was ferretingprogressive
-
were ferretingprogressive
-
had been ferretingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ferret1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English feret, furet, from Middle French furet, fuiret, from Vulgar Latin furittus (unrecorded), equivalent to fūr “thief” + -ittus -et
Origin of ferret2
First recorded in 1570–80; alteration of Italian fioretto “floss silk,” literally, “little flower,” equivalent to fior(e) + -etto diminutive ending; see flower, -et
Explanation
You may be familiar with ferrets, those adorable little mammals that look like cheap minks. Well, the verb to ferret means to act like a ferret: to dig for something until you find it. Ferrets are great at digging, so it's no surprise that we acknowledge their skills when we make the verb ferret, which almost always comes attached to the preposition "out." Woodward and Bernstein worked tirelessly to ferret out the names of the guys who raided the Watergate offices. When you're ready, I'm going to ask you to ferret out those two photos from that stack of photo boxes.
Vocabulary lists containing ferret
A Vocabulary Bestiary: Animals That Behave as Verbs
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For the black-footed ferret staring back, the night was about to get strange.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
"We were very excited to see that GHP-88310 given by mouth completely prevented airborne transmission in our ferret model of measles," said first author Carolin Lieber, a senior postdoctoral fellow in the Plemper lab.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026
The island is now ferret free and there are already encouraging signs in breeding seabird numbers, offering hope to other places round the world grappling with invasive predators.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026
The online service Grammarly originated in 2009 as a suite of tools to help ferret out plagiarism in schoolwork or help students hone their grammar and spelling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
There wasn’t much to read about in the paper—in the Chat Line section a pet ferret had gotten stuck in the tailpipe of a car.
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
Field teams have deployed thermal drones to spot darting ferrets that glow hot pink under the infrared cameras.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
She came to the island just over a year ago to volunteer on the RSPB's Life Raft project to eradicate ferrets.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
That one guy who lives ’round the corner who has three pet ferrets and wears flip-flops all year long.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2026
They also looked at an unpublished study on ferrets which found that the research-grade version of Ervebo provided 100-percent protection against Bundibugyo, whereas all control animals died within 10 days.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
The Warlord began to wish that he had brought along more ferrets and weasels.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Smith, for his part, is dubious about the veracity of the ransom notes - and believes Guthrie was ferreted down to Mexico where she could more easily be kept out of sight.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
The Agriculture Department ferreted data from 28 states and says it found nearly 186,000 dead recipients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
In a clever bit of detective work, Yale legal scholar Reva Siegel has ferreted out the vital role that this “seminar” plays in the originalist ecosystem:
From Slate ● May 14, 2024
“Good cops want bad cops ferreted out,” Jenkins said in a recent interview.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 20, 2023
He was glad that Jimmy thought he’d ferreted out the reason Frankie was late.
From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau
For litigators, it has created a new imperative: ferreting out citations that have been fabricated by AI bots in their own court filings — and their adversaries’.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
Twitter has drastically reduced its staff focused on ferreting out misinformation, hate speech and extremist content since it was bought by Elon Musk.
From Washington Times ● May 5, 2023
At the recent Television Critics Association press tour, Manville claimed that she's not too shabby at ferreting out information herself.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2022
“They should not be able to act like Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby ferreting out clues,” that poll worker wrote.
From New York Times ● May 30, 2022
“He never even told us, did he? I reckon she was so mad he wouldn’t give her loads of horrible stuff about me, she went ferreting around to get him back.”
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
