ferreting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of ferret.

   He spent the afternoon ferreting through dusty archives for the missing letter.

   Reporters were ferreting out details about the company's secret deal.

   Note

   A participle that works both in and out of the burrow. It covers the literal hunting with ferrets and also the broader sense of uncovering something by searching. Without an object it usually takes a preposition of place (ferreting through files). With an object it usually pairs with out (ferreting out the truth). As a gerund it overlaps with the hunting noun, which names the country pursuit itself.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The practice of hunting rabbits and other burrowing animals with the help of ferrets.

   Ferreting remains a traditional method of controlling rabbit populations in the countryside.

   On frosty mornings the men went ferreting along the hedgerows.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A narrow, stout tape of cotton or silk used for tying up bundles of papers and documents.

   The clerk tied each set of deeds with a length of ferreting before filing them.

   A roll of pink ferreting sat on the desk for binding documents.

   Similartape, ribbon

   Note

   A material noun rather than an activity. Here the -ing names a stock of tape, measured by the length or the roll, not anything done with ferrets. The same tape, called simply ferret, also tied clothing and edged fabric, and that use of ferret is now dated. A roll of pink ferreting has nothing to do with the sport; the resemblance is only in the spelling.

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