ferret

«ferret» in Mova's school dictionary: A small, long, thin furry animal related to the weasel… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a ferret, ferrets); verb (ferret, ferrets, ferreted, ferreting)

meaning for a pupil

1) A small, long, thin furry animal related to the weasel, kept as a pet or once used to chase rabbits out of their holes. tree →

2) (verb) To ferret around or about is to search busily for something. tree →

3) To ferret out is to find something out by careful searching. tree →

sense in the lessons

In nature topics, ferrets are playful pets that sleep a lot. In history and countryside stories, people used ferrets to hunt rabbits. In everyday talk, ferret about in a drawer means rummage. Phrases: ferret around, ferret out the truth.

examples

• Our neighbour has two pet ferrets. tree →
• The ferret squeezed into the rabbit hole. tree →
• Ferrets sleep for many hours a day. tree →
• She ferreted around in her bag for her keys. tree →
• The detective ferreted out the truth. tree →
• A baby ferret is called a kit. tree →
• Let a woman alone, in the meantime, for ferreting or wheedling a secret out of her good man, when she wishes. tree →

note

Regular verb: ferreted. In New Zealand, ferrets are a pest that kills native birds, and keeping them as pets is not allowed.

In the corpora

• Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the fireplace and get hopelessly jammed in the chimney!»

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ferret» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.