Idiom
leave no stone unturned
Meaning
To search or investigate thoroughly.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The police will leave no stone unturned to find the missing keys.”
“The detective promised the family that he would leave no stone unturned during his investigation into the accident.”
“Determined to solve the mystery, the researchers left no stone unturned, examining every historical document and piece of evidence they could find.”
Examples
simple
“The police will leave no stone unturned to find the missing keys.”
contextual
“The detective promised the family that he would leave no stone unturned during his investigation into the accident.”
complex
“Determined to solve the mystery, the researchers left no stone unturned, examining every historical document and piece of evidence they could find.”
Origin
From a Greek oracle story: after the battle of Plataea (479 BC), the Delphic oracle advised searching for the Persian general Mardonius' buried treasure by 'moving every stone'; quoted by Euripides.
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B1 · Intermediate
- Updated