ferret
pronunciation
How to pronounce ferret in British English:
UK [ˈferɪt]
How to pronounce ferret in American English:
US [ˈferɪt]
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- Noun:
- ferret of prairie regions of United States; nearly extinct
- domesticated albino variety of the European polecat bred for hunting rats and rabbits
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- Verb:
- hound or harry relentlessly
- hunt with ferrets
- search and discover through persistent investigation
Word Origin
- ferret
- ferret: [14] A ferret is, from an etymological point of view, a ‘thieving animal’. The word comes via Old French fuiret or furet from Vulgar Latin *fūrittus, literally ‘little thief’. This was a derivative of Latin fūr ‘thief’, which is related to English furtive. The verbal senses ‘search about’ and ‘search out’ developed in the 16th century.=> furtive
- ferret (v.)
- early 15c., "hunt with a ferret," from ferret (n.) or from Old French verb fureter, in reference to the use of half-tame ferrets to kill rats and flush rabbits from burrows. The extended sense of "search out, discover," especially by perseverence and cunning, usually with out (adv.), is from 1570s. Related: Ferreted; ferreting.
- ferret (n.)
- late 14c., from Old French furet "ferret," diminutive of fuiron "weasel, ferret," literally "thief" (in allusion to the animal's slyness and craftiness), probably from Late Latin furionem (related to furonem "cat," which also meant "robber"), from Latin fur (genitive furis) "thief," probably from PIE *bhor- (which likely also is the source of furtive), from root *bher- (1) "to carry" (see infer). Also from the French word are Dutch fret, German Frett. Ferret-faced is from 1837 (to have ferret-eyes is from 1580s).
Example
- 1. They tweaked the bird-flu virus 's genes to produce a version which can travel through the air from ferret to ferret .
- 2. Each team engineered the virus so that it could be transmitted through the air from ferret to ferret ( ferrets , surprisingly , are good proxies for humans ) .
- 3. Each team engineered the virus so that it could be transmitted through the air from ferret to ferret ( good proxies for humans ) .
- 4. A particular stage in brain development seems quite simply to be the time to start to walk , independently of whether you are a hedgehog , a ferret or a human being .
- 5. You might think that clay johnson , a campaigner for transparency , would be pleased to see a ferret , with a deerstalker hat and magnifying glass , pop up on his screen .