dragnet

[ drag-net ]

/ ˈdrægˌnɛt /

a net to be drawn along the bottom of a river, pond, etc., or along the ground, to catch fish, small game, etc.

a system or network for finding or catching someone, as a criminal wanted by the police.

Origin of dragnet

Middle English word dating back to 1535–45; see origin at drag, net¹, dray

A new book “Dragnet Nation” asks hard questions about our online lives.

They Want to Know Everything About You |Jake Whitney |March 5, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
There are stretches in Dragnet Nation that are too obviously designed to scare, and parts feel paranoid.

They Want to Know Everything About You |Jake Whitney |March 5, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
As Julia Angwin notes in her new book, Dragnet Nation, the watershed year for tracking was 2001.

They Want to Know Everything About You |Jake Whitney |March 5, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
They were arrested at Cairo's Ramses Square on August 16, caught up in the dragnet of a mass arrest carried out by the military.

Interview With Canadian Filmmaker John Greyson Following His Release from Cairo's Tora Prison |Jesse Rosenfeld |October 11, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

But despite their successes, Aykroyd and Hanks' rap duet at the end of their 1987 film Dragnet was not exactly a plus.

Harry Potter Hip-Hop |Jaimie Etkin |July 13, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
He had thrown out a dragnet of detectives and every suspicious character in the city was passing through it or landing in prison.

The Southerner |Thomas Dixon
"Mascola ran across our trammels this morning with a dragnet," the girl explained.

El Diablo |Brayton Norton
The Indulgence was a dragnet, drawing large hauls of hungry fish, and leaving them to squirm on the shores of sinful compromises.

Sketches of the Covenanters |J. C. McFeeters
Our luck is like water in a dragnet: you pull at it and it bulges, but when you've drawn it out it's empty!

War and Peace |Leo Tolstoy
Their idea of hunting for a workman is to dragnet the back rooms of saloons—especially if they're after a Socialist.

The Air Trust |George Allan England

dragnet

/ (ˈdræɡˌnɛt) /

a heavy or weighted net used to scour the bottom of a pond, river, etc, as when searching for something

any system of coordinated efforts by police forces to track down wanted persons