expiscation

expiscation (countable and uncountable, plural expiscations)

1. (archaic, formal, usually figurative) The act of expiscating or searching for information; fishing.
   • 1601, George Chapman, Peristeros, or the Male Turtle:

     All thy worth, yet, thy selfe must Patronise,
     By quaffing more of the Castalian Head;
     In expiscation of whose Mysteries,
     Our Netts must still be clogd, with heauy Lead,
     To make them sincke, and catche

• “expiscation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.