Idiom
fishing expedition
Meaning
A search for information, especially incriminating information, that is conducted without specific direction or goal, in the hope that something may turn up.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The police are on a fishing expedition to find any evidence of crime.”
“The lawyer's questions felt like a fishing expedition, as he had no proof and was just hoping to find a mistake.”
“The audit quickly devolved into a fishing expedition, with investigators scouring every financial record in hopes of uncovering some hidden irregularity.”
Examples
simple
“The police are on a fishing expedition to find any evidence of crime.”
contextual
“The lawyer's questions felt like a fishing expedition, as he had no proof and was just hoping to find a mistake.”
complex
“The audit quickly devolved into a fishing expedition, with investigators scouring every financial record in hopes of uncovering some hidden irregularity.”
Key words
Related idioms
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