Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To search for gold, especially by reworking washings or waste piles.
  2. v. To rummage or search around, especially for a possible profit.
  3. v. To search for by or as if by rummaging.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To be troublesome.
  2. In gold-digging, to undermine another's digging; search for waste gold in relinquished workings, washing-places, etc.; hence, to search for any object by which to make gain: as, to fossick for clients.
  3. n. A troublesome person.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To ferret out; to elicit information.
  2. v. To search for gold, gems, etc, on the surface or in abandonded workings.
  3. v. To search for something; to rummage.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To search for gold by picking at stone or earth or among roots in isolated spots, picking over abandoned workings, etc.; hence, to steal gold or auriferous matter from another's claim.
  2. v. To search about; to rummage.

Etymologies

  1. English dialectal, to find out, dig up.

Examples

  • “So I decided to go down and "fossick" among the Blyde River terraces.”

    Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer

  • “Cobden said that a feature of the applicant's case was to "fossick" around various documents and attempt to "stitch" them together to create a "mindset where iiNet encouraged infringement" on its network.”

    iTnews Australia

  • “But the pressures of Dressember have encouraged me to go for a bit of a fossick and recover some survivors from beneath the rubble.”

    Sew Retro

  • “General opinion now seems to be that it entered the language too early for that -- and an English etymology is preferred: fiver: a five pound (sterling) note (or "bill"); fossick: pick out gold, in a fairly desultory fashion.”

    The Rising of the Court

  • “His anger floats over me as I fossick inside, Wednesday gloves black with grime.”

    Fictionaut: Filth

  • “Here's Ian Forth, who I can't help but notice seems to be emailing from his wife's account, with a Smyth-esque piece of statgazzary: Had a quick fossick through statsguru today.”

    The Guardian: Pakistan v England – day two live! | Andy Bull and Rob Smyth

  • “It's squirmy, but gives him the perfect opportunity to fossick into the medical-related matters that brought his brother down.”

    kaboom!

  • “I just fossick around reading whatever interests me.”

    Five historical figures

  • “This is, admittedly, not Ackroyd's field; he much prefers to fossick around with ecclesiastical architecture and cross-dressing at early-medieval festivals.”

    That Blessed Plot, That Enigmatic Isle

  • “Anne was forced to fossick through the pages of information for the odd trace of gold, though when she found a gleam, she had to admit that she could not be sure it wasn't mere pyrite instead.”

    A Darker Place

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘fossick’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • EditorMark For a discussion, see World Wide Words: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-fos1.htm Dec 1, 2009

  • artoparts Verb. Austral & NZ to find out, dig up, from English dialect fussock to bustle about, move or cause to move energetically and busily. Excited and often noisy activity; a stir. Jan 21, 2009

  • yarb Australian? Common enough in UK, too. May 23, 2008

  • frindley Almost exclusively Australian word of Cornish origin. I am told that sook - as in "Grow up, stop crying and don't be such a bloody sook" (or "sooky baby") is also of Cornish origin. May 8, 2008

‘fossick’ has been looked up 2048 times, loved by 5 people, added to 24 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.