The act of hunting with ferrets, or more commonly, searching persistently and carefully through something to find something hidden.
Present participle of 'ferret' formed with the '-ing' suffix, indicating ongoing action of either hunting with ferrets or searching intensively.
Ferreting into someone's business has become almost entirely metaphorical now—most people have never seen an actual ferret hunt—yet the word maintains its visceral sense of relentless, aggressive searching that the animal's behavior inspired.
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