v. Austral. [app. of Eng. dial. origin; cf. ‘Fossick, a troublesome person, fossiking, troublesome. Warw.’ (Halliwell).]
1. intr. in Mining. To search for gold by digging out crevices with knife or pick, or by working in washing-places and abandoned workings in the hope of finding particles or small nuggets overlooked by others. Also, to fossick about.
1852. W. H. Hall, Diggings Victoria, 16 (Morris). Fossicking (picking out the nuggets from the interstices of the slate formation) with knives and trowels.
1855. H. Clarke, Dict., Fossick, undermine a man’s golddigging.
1864. J. Rogers, New Rush, I. 18.
| We’ll fossick wherever we think there is gold, | |
| And who shall the treasures of nature withhold? |
1886. M. Kershaw, in Spectator, 4 Dec., 1630. When a Chinaman fossicks about for gold or tin.
2. gen. To rummage or hunt about; to search.
1887. Illustr. Lond. News, 12 March, 282/3. ‘Fossicking’ among books and memoranda I came upon an … example.
1889. Boldrewood, Robbery under Arms (1890), 165. We fossicked about for a while to see if the man who lived so long by himself in this lonely place had left anything behind him to help us make out what sort he was.
1890. Melbourne Argus, 2 Aug., 4/3. Half the time was spent in fossicking for sticks.
3. trans. To dig out, to hunt up (something).
a. 1870. S. Lemaitre, Songs of Gold Fields, 14.
| He ran from the flat with an awful shout | |
| Without waiting to fossick the coffin lid out. |
1893. J. A. Barry, Steve Brown’s Bunyip, 8. I’ll have to fossick up them mokes, Mariar, an’ take ’em to that darkey straight away, afore wuss ’appens.
Hence Fossicking vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Fossicker, one who fossicks, esp. a pocket-miner or a prospector for gold.
1859. Cornwallis, New World, I. 130. His waist is encircled by a plain leather belt, in which he usually carries his fossicking knife, which he uses in dislodging the gold from holes and crevices.
1864. J. Rogers, New Rush, II. 32.
| Work, my lads, for the gilded ore | |
| Must be sought before ’tis found, | |
| And steady old fossickers often get more | |
| Than the first who open’d the ground. |
1880. Sutherland, Tales Goldf., 21–2. He [James Esmond] threw up his mail contract, took ship for Sydney, and eventually arrived in California, where he commenced working along with several companions at surface digging and fossicking.
1891. Melbourne Argus, 25 July, 13/2. One could wish that all irrigationists would take the view that most of the native birds, and above all the swamp fossickers, are not merely friends but allies.
