fishing expedition: Meaning and Definition of

fish'ing expedi"tion

Pronunciation: [key]
— Informal. Informal.
  1. a legal proceeding mainly for the purpose of interrogating an adversary, or of examining his or her property and documents, in order to gain useful information.
  2. any inquiry carried on without any clearly defined plan or purpose in the hope of discovering useful information. Also called
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.