[f. FERRET sb.1; cf. F. fureter (16th c. in Littré), which may be the source.]
1. intr. To hunt with ferrets.
c. 1450. Lydg., in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 26. With hem that fyrretyth robbe conyngherthys.
1576, 1673, 1879. [see FERRETING vbl. sb.1].
b. trans. To hunt over (ground) with a ferret; to clear out by means of a ferret.
a. 1483. Liber Niger, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 66. To geve any servaunt occasion to furett or hunt any mannys warreynes, chases, nor parkes.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in a Southern County, 214. Even if the burrows be ferreted, in a few weeks this great hole shows signs of fresh inhabitants. Ibid., 248. In ferreting this place the greatest care has to be taken that the ferret is lined with a long string, or so fed that he will not lie in.
2. trans. To take (rabbits, etc.) with ferrets. Also, to drive forth by means of a ferret.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 893/2. Some fell to drinking, some to feretting of other mens conies.
1579. Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse (Arb.), 35. These prettie Rabbets very cunningly ferretted from their borrowes.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Ferreted, hunted as Conies.
1724. Swift, Wood’s Execution, Wks. 1738, IV. 234. Rabbet-catcher, I’ll ferret him.
1884. York Herald, 26 Aug., 6/3. The tenants … have permission to ferret and dig rabbits.
3. Of actions resembling a ferret’s.
a. To hunt after; to worry. Also with about.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. iv. 29. Boy. He sayes his Name is M. Fer. Pist. M. Fer: Ile fer him, and firke him, and ferret him.
1605. King Leir, in Nichols, Six Old Plays (1779), 461.
| Welshman, Ile so ferrit you ere night for that word, | |
| That you shall have no mind to crake so wel this twelvemonth. |
1663. Butler, Hud., I. iii. 236.
| And, if he were above ground, vow’d | |
| He’d ferret him, lurk where he wou’d. |
1713. Steele, Guardian, No. 132, 12 Aug., ¶ 4. She does so ferrit them about, forsooth and mistress them up, and so find fault with every thing they do, and talks to them so loud and so long, that they either give her immediate warning, or march off without any wages at all.
1810. Lamb, Lett. to Manning (1888), I. 115. He ferrets me day and night to do something.
b. To drive from, off, out of (a place). Also, to ferret about, away, forth, out.
1601. J. Deacon & J. Walker, Spirits & Divels, 287. You are almost quite ferreted foorth from all your starting holes.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 177. With Terriar Dogs they ferret him out of his den again.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., iv. (1669), 193/2. Speak soul; did the Lord ever ferret thee out of this burrow where so many earth themselves?
a. 1679. Earl Orrery, Guzman, III. I’ll ferret him way.
1683. Wycherley, Country Wife, IV. iii. I’ll ferret her out to you presently.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 124. Dr. Laud … sifted, and ferreted him about from one hole to another.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. viii. 86–7. Bewailing the Misery that they underwent by the inexorable Janisaries, took Counsel to ferret them off their Island at the Hazard of their Lives, rather than continue under the unsupportable Yoke they were in.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 241. Measures were accordingly taken to put a stop to the widely-extended evil, and to ferret this vermin brood out of the colonies.
c. intr. To rummage, search about; † to be restless, worry; also, to ferret up and down.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 963. Souldiers, who went ferriting up and down in his House.
1624. Gee, Foot out of Snare, 52. They are very nimble, especially in a possessed woman, in whose body they can canuas a diuell by contrectation and certaine inchanting nips, making him ferret vp and downe, from tongue to toe, from toe back again to finger.
1693. Southerne, The Maid’s Last Prayer, II. ii. But you must be running after my domestic, ferreting in my Borough?
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 201. Ferret among the booksellers, and find more tracts, in Italian, upon agriculture than I expected.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, xx. (1826), 276.
| How would these Conjurors ferret and sweat, | |
| To see us pair off by eighteens to piquet! |
1891. E. Gosse, Gossip in Library, xii. 150. When he wants to be specially smart, as, for instance, when he designs a conquest at a birthday-party, he has to ferret among the pawnbrokers for scraps of finery, or secure on loan a fair, full-bottom wig.
d. trans. To search (a place); also, to question (a person) searchingly. rare.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 27.
| But the good Æneas in night with care great awaked | |
| With Phœbus rising vpgot, too ferret al vncooth | |
| Nouks of strang country, in what coast his nauye doth harboure? |
1607. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv., Magnificence, 198.
| Ferret all Corners of this neather Ball; | |
| But to admire the Maker’s Art in all. |
1647. Wharton, Wks. (1683), 277. The thing I have proposed to my selfe, is first, to ferret the poore Quack in point of Art, and afterwards in matter of Judgement.
e. To burrow (a passage), rare.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 93.
| Alpheüs, men say, thee great flud of Elis | |
| Vnder seabottoms this passadge ferreted. |
4. To ferret out, up: To search out, discover, bring to light.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., II. 36/2. That he were able to ferret out such … brats.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 122 b. Let us now fyrritte out the other, and see what vermine it is, and how it is able to defende it selfe.
a. 1643. W. Cartwright, Ordinary, V. iv. Let’s in, and ferret out these cheating rake-hells.
1775. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XII. 324. Mark all those that would set one of you against the other. Some such will never be wanting. But give them no countenance; rather ferret them out, and drag them into open day.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xxxix. (1879), 330. But Mrs. Hamper was not so easily beaten. Before anybody was up, but the sun and the waiters, next morning, she had been out in the village, and ferretted up all the guides who were going, inquired about the weather, bought a pole, and made herself acquainted with all the details of the intended trip.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., ix. I have ferreted out evidence, got up cases.
5. slang. To cheat.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Ferreted, cheated.
