| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| ferret1 |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | fer·ret |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f r  t |
| NOUN: | 1. A weasellike, usually albino mammal (Mustela putorius furo) related to the polecat and often trained to hunt rats or rabbits. 2. A black-footed ferret. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: fer·ret·ed, fer·ret·ing, fer·rets
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To hunt (rabbits, for example) with ferrets. b. To drive out, as from a hiding place; expel. 2. To uncover and bring to light by searching. Often used with out: “Their work merely points the way for others to ferret out the core components of all proteins” (Natalie Angier, New York Times December 11, 1990). 3. To hound or harry persistently; worry. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To engage in hunting with ferrets. 2. To search intensively. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English furet, ferret, from Old French furet, from Vulgar Latin *f rittus, diminutive of Latin fr, thief. See bher-1 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | ferret·er —NOUN
ferret·y —ADJECTIVE
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
