fishing expedition

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Investigating or asking questions without a clear idea of what you are looking for

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Điều tra hoặc hỏi câu hỏi mà không có ý tưởng rõ ràng về những gì bạn đang tìm kiếm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: going on a trip to catch fish
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The lawyer's questions seemed like a fishing expedition

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “fishing expedition” mean?

Investigating or asking questions without a clear idea of what you are looking for Literally: going on a trip to catch fish

Is “fishing expedition” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.