fossick
/ˈfɒsɪk
/verb [no object] Australian /NZ informal
1Rummage; search: he spent years fossicking through documents...
- Assuming that a web search is the same as fossicking through a newspaper archive is the biggest research mistake search-engine expert David Hawking ever made.
- Now you're obviously fossicking through plants for special substances to see if they're useful.
- Robyn, you have to understand that when we do find this, it is a war grave and we don't want to go fossicking through the ship.
1.1Search for gold in abandoned workings.The Indonesian police claim that those involved in the January 7 incident were not local people, but ‘illegal miners’ armed with spears and mining tools, who had come to Halmahera from Sulawesi and other islands to fossick for gold....
- Before that they were aware that people were interested in going to the station to fossick for gold - but were unaware that changes to the mining act in the year 2000, gave fossickers automatic rights of entry to the property.
- But potential prospectors shouldn't take a pick and shovel - it's now illegal to fossick for gold in the Egmont National Park that embraces the Kaitakes.
Derivatives
fossicker
- Before that they were aware that people were interested in going to the station to fossick for gold - but were unaware that changes to the mining act in the year 2000, gave fossickers automatic rights of entry to the property.
- Two eager fossickers - a man and woman apparently in their 20s - were already going through them and picking out their favourites.
- But perhaps the real similarity lies in the smash-and-grab variety of science both fossickers blithely espoused.
Origin
Mid 19th century (referring to mining): probably from the English dialect sense 'obtain by asking' (i.e. ‘ferret out’).