smoke out
Drive from hiding
To smoke out is to drive something from concealment, originally by filling a space with smoke to force creatures to flee: They smoked the bees out of the hollow tree.
The figurative sense dominates now—to expose or uncover something hidden: Investigators smoked out the source of the leak.
The audit was designed to smoke out fraud.
uncover
Reveal what's hidden
- unmaskReveal true identity
- revealMake something visible
- bring to lightExpose hidden information
detect · discover · unearth · expose · lay bare · track down · hunt down · identify · pinpoint · locate
dislodge
Force from position
disperse · scatter · remove · eject · displace · purge · expunge · banish · exterminate · fumigate
- detectiondetect, discover, find, identify, locate
- revealreveal, disclose, expose, unmask, unveil
- root outuproot, eradicate, root up, hunt down, track down
- small game huntinghare, rabbit, cottontail, jackrabbit, groundhog
- heartsheart shape, heart icon, heart emoji, red heart, heart symbol
- pursuitchase, chasing, pursuit, chase down, pursue