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Fossick

//ˈfɒsɪk// verb

Definitions

Verb

1
To search for something; to rummage. Australia, British, New-Zealand, intransitive
"I dined alone and sat after dinner in the smoking-room, for Odell never suggested the library, though I would have given a lot to fossick about that place."
2
To search for something; to rummage.; To elicit information; to ferret out. Australia, British, New-Zealand, intransitive, specifically
"[T]he honorable member went to the Railway department, and fossicked about for information, and he found, forsooth, that there had been a little rise in the salary of a son of a member of the House."
3
To search for something; to rummage.; To search for gems, gold, etc., on the surface or in abandoned workings. Australia, British, New-Zealand, intransitive, specifically
"The "fossicker" is one who wanders about old diggings, armed with a knife and pan, and who seldom sinks or drives, but "fossicks" or searches about the old heaps of dirt, or in the bottoms of deserted shafts and drives, keen-eyed after unobserved gold."
4
To be troublesome. British, dialectal, intransitive

Etymology

Probably from dialectal fossick (“to ferret out”), fossuck (“troublesome person”), fussick (“to potter over one's work”), fussock (“to bustle about”), further origin uncertain. Compare fuss.

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