fossick

verb4

1. •
   (UK, Australia) To search for something; to rummage.

   • I dined alone and sat after dinner in the smoking-room, for Odell never suggested the library, though I would have given a lot to fossick about that place. — 1924
2. •
   (UK, Australia) To elicit information; to ferret out.

   • [T]he honorable member went to the Railway department, and fossicked about for information, and he found, forsooth, that there had been a little rise in the salary of a son of a member of the House. — 1872
3. •
   (UK, Australia) To search for gems, gold, etc., on the surface or in abandoned workings.

   • In New South Wales the bureau has been able to dispose of a large contingent of the workless by sending them to fossick for gold on old or deserted goldfields. — 1902
4. •
   (dialect, UK) To be troublesome.