a fishing expedition

(mainly American)

an attempt to discover the facts about something by collecting a lot of information, often secretly The investigators' request for the company's accounts is simply a fishing expedition - they have no real evidence of wrongdoing.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Rowland	['rəulənd]
Felipa	fe-LEE-pah	Spanish
Manuela	mah-noo-E-lah (German), mah-NWE-lah (Italian)	Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, German, Italian
Tyko	-	Swedish
Tatianna	ta-tee-AN-ə, ta-TYAN-ə	English (Modern)
Manolo	mah-NO-lo	Spanish