flush out

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to force someone or something to come out of hiding

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

buộc ai đó hoặc điều gì đó phải xuất hiện

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to wash out
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The police used a loudspeaker to flush out the suspect.

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 “flush out” mean?

to force someone or something to come out of hiding Literally: to wash out

Is “flush out” formal or informal?

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