a fishing expedition
mainly USan attempt to discover the facts about something by collecting a lot of information, often secretly:
The investigators' request for the company's accounts is simply a fishing expedition - they have no real evidence of wrongdoing.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Finding and discovering
- alight
- ascertain
- break fresh/new ground idiom
- breakthrough
- catch sb red-handed idiom
- catch sb with their pants/trousers down idiom
- flush
- get wind of sth idiom
- happen
- happen on/upon sth/sb
- have a (good) nose for sth idiom
- have got something there idiom
- root sth/sb out
- run sb/sth to ground idiom
- scent
- search
- search sth/sb out
- smell
- sniff sth out
- stumble
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