fishing expedition

noun

Informal.

1. a legal proceeding mainly for the purpose of interrogating a suspect, or of examining their property and documents, in order to gain useful information.

2. any inquiry carried on without any clearly defined plan or purpose in the hope of discovering useful information.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fishing expedition¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Idioms and Phrases

An attempt to find useful information by asking questions at random. For example, The sales force was told to go on a fishing expedition to find out what they could about the company's competitors. This expression was taken up by lawyers to describe interrogating an adversary in hopes of finding relevant evidence and is now used more broadly still. [c. 1930]

Example Sentences

But new technology known as Enhanced Geothermal Systems is broadening the places where geothermal energy can be created — removing the sense of a fishing expedition for developers hoping their wells will hit a hot spot.

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It “would allow an outside agency unprecedented access to IRS records for reasons that have nothing to do with tax administration, opening the door to endless fishing expeditions,” he said.

Read more on Salon

Saturday’s fishing expedition occurred about a week after Duarte contacted police because she had begun noticing that the number of koi in her pond seemed to be dwindling.

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Baldoni’s team subpoenaed Swift earlier this year, but eventually withdrew it after the singer and her legal reps dismissed it as an “unwarranted fishing expedition,” according to Variety.

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But the subpoenas were dropped after Swift's legal team objected that they amounted to an "unwarranted fishing expedition".

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