flush out

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

flush out (third-person singular simple present flushes out, present participle flushing out, simple past and past participle flushed out)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see flush,‎ out.
2. (idiomatic) To drive out or expose something or someone, as a game bird or other game animal from cover.

   Synonyms: drive, flush, scare up (the latter especially of game birds)

   The dogs flushed out some doves.

   The army flushed out the enemy spy.

   • 1982 December 18, Siong-huat Chua, Sam Sasha, Philip Fung, “Hong Kong And The Emergence Of An Asian Gay Consciousness”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 22, page 9:

     At that time a Special Investigative Unit (SIU) was set up to initiate a witch-hunt against homosexuals in government. So the SIU established this big file on homosexuals in government. Of course the real purpose was to flush out dissident civil servants, using homosexuality as an excuse. It was used as a political weapon by those who wielded power to get rid of their antagonists and their enemies.

   • 2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     Fingers and Thumbs immediately started rushing around, wielding their iron bars as if going into battle. They whacked everything in sight – bushes, bins, even the burnt-out burger van – in an effort to flush out whoever had hurt their glorious leader.

3. (proscribed) To flesh out.
   • 1990, Robert E. Bergman, Thomas V. Moore, Managing Interactive Video/Multimedia Projects, Educational Technology,, →ISBN, page 45:

     It should serve to flush out the existing ideas, generate new ones, insure that the approach chosen is responsive to the goals, and perhaps most importantly, get the whole team to sign up and take ownership of the application approach.

   • 2009, Laura Bell, 101 Things You Didn’t Learn in Harvard Business School, TotalRecall Publications,, →ISBN, page 68:

     Brainstorming with friends and colleagues can help you flush out the details of the idea.

   • 2014, George Berkowski, How to Build a Billion Dollar App, Little, →ISBN:

     As you flush out a great design, start prototyping it.

Usage notes

To flesh out an idea is to pursue it further. To flush out an idea would literally mean to stop pursuing it.

Anagrams

• outflush