dragnet
Seabed fishing seine
A dragnet is a net dragged along the bottom of a body of water to catch fish.
The word extends to any systematic search or coordinated effort to catch criminals or gather suspects: Police set up a dragnet across the city.
The figurative sense suggests sweeping up everything in a wide area, sometimes indiscriminately.
Drag net for fish
Search for a suspect
- sweepBrush clean with broom
- raidSudden armed incursion
- patrolRegular surveillance route
- searchAct of seeking
pursuit · roundup · cordon · checkpoint · APB · fugitive · suspect · apprehension
Professional crime investigator
- cluesHints toward answers
- evidenceFacts supporting truth
- forensicsScientific crime-scene analysis
- interrogationFormal, probing examination
sleuth · inquiry · probe · surveillance · witness · testimony · suspect · crime scene
Covert information gatherer
- intelligenceMental ability, cognitive capacity
- counterintelligenceDefense against enemy espionage
- surveillanceSystematic observation of subjects
- infiltrationCovert entry into organization
mole · agent · CIA · FBI · HUMINT · tradecraft · reconnaissance · informant
Electromagnetic wave receiver
- televisionBroadcast viewing device
- seriesOrdered set of related items
- noirHard-boiled film genre
- proceduralFollowing set steps
1950s · NBC · episodes · dramatization · cop show · badge · Los Angeles · LAPD
trawl
Drag net for fish
manhunt
Search for a suspect
search · pursuit · roundup · cordon · checkpoint · APB · fugitive · suspect · apprehension · perimeter
detective
Professional crime investigator
interrogation · sleuth · inquiry · probe · surveillance · witness · testimony · suspect · crime scene · deduction
spy
Covert information gatherer
- intelligenceMental ability, cognitive capacity
- counterintelligenceDefense against enemy espionage
- surveillanceSystematic observation of subjects
infiltration · mole · agent · CIA · FBI · HUMINT · tradecraft · reconnaissance · informant · wiretap
radio
Electromagnetic wave receiver
- televisionBroadcast viewing device
- seriesOrdered set of related items
- noirHard-boiled film genre
procedural · 1950s · NBC · episodes · dramatization · cop show · badge · Los Angeles · LAPD
- crime investigationdetective, whodunit, investigation, detectives, investigator
- fishing industrycommercial fishing, fishing fleet, fishing vessels, fishing ports, fishing port
- policingpatrol, police powers, arrests, police officer, arrest
- Manhuntfugitive, manhunt, wanted poster, most wanted, pursuit
- catchersbackstop, receiver, bug catcher, rat catcher, dog catcher
- netsgillnet, hairnet, netting, fishnet, gillnets
dragnetretreat
Sanctuary or withdrawal
withdrawal · dispersal · release · scattering · stand-down
dragnetcast net
Weighted circular fishing mesh
throw net · gill net · hand line · rod and reel · spearfishing