ferret out

The modern discipline of psychology would ferret out the private motives of regular and refined collectors alike.

We will ferret out students who protest against my policies.

Taylor ferrets out the secret with her bloodthirsty relentlessness and immediately raises pandemonium.

The controversy prompted a more broadly-based movement to ferret out other Vietnamese celebrities suspected of conspiring against the country.

The fact that Duffy is wasting his time by making these threats and combing through awarded contracts to ferret out such putative violations is, however, a settled question: Of course he is.