1
general::
Phrase(s): a fishing expedition
a search for information without knowledge of whether such information exists. (This involves asking questions with no preconceived notion of what the answers might reveal.) • The lawyer was on a fishing expedition. There was no real wrong committed to justify a lawsuit. • Your honor, the prosecutor is just on a clumsy fishing expedition. I move for dismissal. • We are going to have to go on a fishing expedition to try to find the facts.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
An attempt to find useful information by asking questions at random. For example, The sales force was told to go on a fishing expedition to find out what they could about the company's competitors. This expression was taken up by lawyers to describe interrogating an adversary in hopes of finding relevant evidence and is now used more broadly still. [c. 1930]
American Heritage Idioms