Timeline for A verb for when we actively extract information from others?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 18, 2017 at 0:37 | comment | added | jorfus | "Suss out" would be useful in the context of unraveling a mystery, possibly by filling in missing details by leaps of logic. | |
| Aug 17, 2017 at 20:08 | comment | added | 1006a | @WS2 The first example in M-W is In recent months, Trump’s associates have repeatedly elided or evaded details about their contacts with the Kremlin and its allies—that is, until further questions have sussed out something closer to the truth from the Atlantic. That surely is referring to actively extracting fairly detailed information, and in a clearly US context? To be clear, I'm not disagreeing with your interpretation of how it would be used by British writers, but I think it has drifted somewhat from that usage in an American context, possibly via OD's definition 1.1. | |
| Aug 17, 2017 at 19:56 | comment | added | WS2 | @1006a I am not sure that those excerpts from the web do fit the OP's requirement. They seem to me fairly close to Merriam Webster's own definition, which is the same as Oxford Dictionary's. What they also agree upon is that it is chiefly a British expression. I agree with Sasan. | |
| Aug 17, 2017 at 19:55 | comment | added | Sasan | @1006a "sass out" in the related sense only means to find out something about someone, for example, who someone is. What the OP is looking for is a word for when we gain the information someone has and that can be more than information about someone. | |
| Aug 17, 2017 at 19:45 | comment | added | 1006a | I've often seen suss out used in precisely the OP's situation in US contexts. Merriam-Webster's recent examples from the web back up that usage, too. Oxford Dictionary's entry sounds more like @WS2's usage, but their definition 1.1 and a few of the examples thereunder come pretty close to the OP's situation, as well, e.g. ‘After a few hours my identity as a journalist is sussed out.’. | |
| Aug 17, 2017 at 19:11 | comment | added | WS2 | I do not think suss out is relevant here - at least that is not the way it is used in Britain. Suss out usually means working something out for oneself e.g. Abandoned on a lonely road she quickly sussed out where exactly she was. And finagle has no direct applicability to getting information from someone else. | |
| Aug 17, 2017 at 18:39 | history | answered | Michael Seifert | CC BY-SA 3.0 |