fossick
English · Thesaurus
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fossick
- /ˈfɒsɪk/ UK
- /ˈfɑsɪk/ US
Where it comes from
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.
verb fossicks · fossicking · fossicked
- To search for something; to rummage. 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.
- To elicit information; to ferret out. [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.
- To search for gems, gold, etc., on the surface or in abandoned workings. 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.
- To be troublesome.
Similar: noodle
Thesaurus
verb
Similar: noodle
Translations
Talk about this word "fossick." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fossick. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. fossick. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fossick "fossick." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fossick.Cite this
@misc{fossick_2026,
title = {fossick},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fossick},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
