• enPR: fĕr'ət, IPA: /ˈfɛɹɪt/

ferret (plural ferrets)

1. An often domesticated mammal (Mustela putorius furo) rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals.
2. The black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes.
3. (figurative) A diligent searcher.
   • 1998 July 2, Charles Nicholl, "Screaming in the Castle" in the London Review of Books, Vol. XX, No. 13:

     The most challenging documentary discoveries were made by a tenacious archival ferret, Dr Antonio Bertoletti. In 1879 he published his findings in a slim, refreshingly dry volume, Francesco Cenci e la sua Famiglia.

• ferret-badger
• furtive

• French: furet
• German: Frettchen
• Italian: furetto
• Portuguese: furão
• Russian: хорёк
• Spanish: hurón

ferret (ferrets, present participle ferreting; past and past participle ferreted)

1. To hunt game with ferrets.
2. (by extension, ambitransitive) To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.

• French: fureter, fouiner, débusquer, découvrir, dénicher
• Spanish: buscar, rebuscar, fisgonear

ferret

1. (dated) A tape of silk, cotton, or ribbon, used to tie documents, clothing, etc. or along the edge of fabric.
   • , Charles Dickens, Bleak House

     red tape and green ferret