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
Viviana	vee-vee-AH-nah (Italian)	Italian, Spanish, Late Roman
Danny	['dæni]
Louiza	-	Greek
Gerald	JER-əld (English), GE-rahlt (German)	English, German
Swanhilda	-	German
Temir	-	Kazakh