"ferret" meaning in English

See ferret in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈfɛrɪt/ Audio: en-us-ferret.ogg [US] Forms: ferret [singular], ferrets [plural]
enPR: fĕr'ət Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. A small animal that eats meat. Ferrets often hunt rabbits and other small animals. Ferrets are similar to weasels and are related to weasels.
    Sense id: simple-ferret-en-noun-GEbqRw35

Verb

IPA: /ˈfɛrɪt/ Audio: en-us-ferret.ogg [US] Forms: ferret [canonical], ferrets [third-person, singular], ferreted [past], ferreted [past, participle], ferreting [present, participle]
enPR: fĕr'ət Head templates: {{verb}} [POS TABLE]
  1. To use ferrets to hunt other animals.
    Sense id: simple-ferret-en-verb-T3e1fMT7
  2. If you "ferret something out" you search for it and find it. You could be trying to find something, or to solve a problem (find the answer). Often, this means you have to go through a lot of material to find a little bit you want.
    Sense id: simple-ferret-en-verb-gbaQ~oUs
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ferret",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferrets",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A small animal that eats meat. Ferrets often hunt rabbits and other small animals. Ferrets are similar to weasels and are related to weasels."
      ],
      "id": "simple-ferret-en-noun-GEbqRw35",
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "fĕr'ət"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfɛrɪt/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"fer@t/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-ferret.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ferret"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ferret",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferrets",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferreted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferreted",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferreting",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To use ferrets to hunt other animals."
      ],
      "id": "simple-ferret-en-verb-T3e1fMT7"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Do you think you can ferret the names we need out of the list."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you \"ferret something out\" you search for it and find it. You could be trying to find something, or to solve a problem (find the answer). Often, this means you have to go through a lot of material to find a little bit you want."
      ],
      "id": "simple-ferret-en-verb-gbaQ~oUs"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "fĕr'ət"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfɛrɪt/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"fer@t/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-ferret.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ferret"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ferret",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferrets",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Countable nouns"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A small animal that eats meat. Ferrets often hunt rabbits and other small animals. Ferrets are similar to weasels and are related to weasels."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "fĕr'ət"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfɛrɪt/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"fer@t/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-ferret.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ferret"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ferret",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferrets",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferreted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferreted",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ferreting",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To use ferrets to hunt other animals."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Do you think you can ferret the names we need out of the list."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you \"ferret something out\" you search for it and find it. You could be trying to find something, or to solve a problem (find the answer). Often, this means you have to go through a lot of material to find a little bit you want."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "fĕr'ət"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfɛrɪt/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/\"fer@t/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-ferret.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ferret"
}

Download raw JSONL data for ferret meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-16 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (b0b7a66 and 3185d56). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.