Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A system of coordinated procedures for apprehending criminal suspects or other wanted persons.
  • noun A net for trawling; a trawl.
  • noun A net for catching small game.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A net designed to be drawn on the bottom of a river or pond for taking fish, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A net to be drawn along the bottom of a body of water, as in fishing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A net dragged across the bottom of a body of water.
  • noun Heightened efforts by law-enforcement personnel to capture suspects.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a conical fishnet dragged through the water at great depths
  • noun a system of coordinated measures for apprehending (criminals or other individuals)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

drag + net

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Examples

  • June 17th, 2009 at 3: 46 pm benjoya Says: dragnet is right. especially the suicide part, which will save many lives.

    Wonk Room » Open Letter To Robert Kagan 2009

  • ACLU: FBI used 'dragnet'-style warrantless cell tracking | Privacy Inc.

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2010

  • ACLU: FBI used 'dragnet'-style warrantless cell tracking | Privacy Inc.

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2010

  • And since obviously no police dragnet is 100% effective, there’s a larger pool of potential bombers available who’d rather tap their virgins in this world. levitra Says:

    Matthew Yglesias » MANPAD Mania 2007

  • The first cast of what Crane aptly termed the dragnet had brought in the management and service staff to a man, with a number of the restaurant's habitues, including Sophie Weringrode and her errand-boy, the exquisite Mr. Revel.

    The False Faces Further Adventures from the History of the Lone Wolf Louis Joseph Vance 1906

  • Worse, there are hints that the government uses this secret interpretation to gather what one Patriot-watcher calls a "dragnet" for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently.

    Boing Boing Xeni Jardin 2011

  • Caught in the dragnet are the handicapped adults who used to line their wheelchairs along a stretch of the boulevard leading to the presidential palace in downtown Dakar.

    phillyBurbs.com: Home RSS feed 2010

  • EFF sued the government claiming that AT&T and perhaps other telecommunications companies cooperated with it to allow access to people's phone and Internet records -- a so-called dragnet in a search for terrorist communications.

    FOXNews.com 2009

  • EFF sued the government claiming that AT&T and perhaps other telecommunications companies cooperated with it to allow access to people's phone and Internet records -- a so-called dragnet in a search for terrorist communications.

    FOXNews.com 2009

  • One of the unlucky thousands caught up in the dragnet was a Daily News reporter assigned to cover the ticket blitz; after getting a call from his editor,

    Gothamist 2009

Comments

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  • stockings for flamboyant fish

    (ha! boyant!)

    April 9, 2009