Ferreted

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Searched carefully and persistently to find something hidden or hard to discover
2. Looked through thoroughly with the intent to uncover or locate what is concealed
3. Hunted diligently by probing or rooting around to reveal something secret or obscured

Etymology: The animal's name comes first, and it is a surprise. The ferret takes its name from the Latin "fur", meaning "thief", through a diminutive that gave the Old French "furet" and the Middle English "furet" and "ferret". The Latin word itself was applied to the weasel-like animal, and the ferret's reputation for slipping into burrows to flush out rabbits gave the verb its sense of rooting out something hidden. "Ferreted" is simply the past tense of the verb "ferret", which came into English from Old French, so the sense of searching carefully into corners remains tied to the animal's hunting habits. The meaning moved from the hunt to the search: a person who ferrets out a secret or a missing document is doing what the animal did to a warren.

Synonyms: searched, rummaged, sought, inquired, scoured

Antonyms: ignored, neglected, overlooked