dragnet C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary US /ˈdræɡnɛt/ UK /ˈdraɡnɛt/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun a systematic search for criminals; a net drawn along the bottom Police threw a dragnet across the city to find the suspect. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a systematic search for... roundupsweeptrawlseine Word family Related forms dragnet Etymology AI details A compound of 'drag' + 'net', literally a net dragged along the bottom; the figurative police sense is 19th-century. 'Net' is from Old English 'net(t)'. dragan Old English net Old English View etymology graph -> Topics General Vocabulary External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # dragnet **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈdræɡnɛt/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈdraɡnɛt/ ## Meanings 1. a systematic search for criminals; a net drawn along the bottom ## Examples - Police threw a dragnet across the city to find the suspect. ## Synonyms - roundup - sweep - trawl - seine ## Related Forms - drag - net ## Roots and Affixes - Root: dragan - Root: net ## Etymology A compound of 'drag' + 'net', literally a net dragged along the bottom; the figurative police sense is 19th-century. 'Net' is from Old English 'net(t)'. ## AI Etymology Dragnet is a compound of 'drag' + 'net', literally a net dragged along the bottom; the figurative police sense is 19th-century. 'Net' is from Old English 'net(t)'. The ancestry passes through Old English dragan and Old English net. In present use as a noun, it means "a systematic search for criminals; a net drawn along the bottom", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. The figurative development named in the history lets the word move from a concrete base into a broader descriptive use. Related words include drag and net. ## Topics - General Vocabulary markdown