beat about vs ferret

beat about

ferret

verb
  • To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out. 

  • To hunt game with ferrets. 

noun
  • A diligent searcher. 

  • An often domesticated mammal (Mustela putorius furo) rather like a weasel, descended from the polecat and often trained to hunt burrowing animals. 

  • The black-footed ferret, Mustela nigripes. 

How often have the words beat about and ferret occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )