to leave no stone unturned
8
4.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
no dejar piedra sin mover
- To solve the mystery, the detective promised to leave no stone unturned in his investigation.
- leave no stone unturned," said
- make sure you leave no stone unturned
- leave no stone unturned in the search
Grace instructed his employees to leave no stone unturned in their search to root out inefficiency.
- Grace instructed his employees to leave no stone unturned in their search to root out inefficiency.
- And she is the reason why I will keep going and keep going and keep going and leave no stone unturned until the wheels fall off.
- I think when you leave no stone unturned, no matter how a fight for me goes, I'll leave with my head up.
- I was trying to fill a hole and I needed to make sure that I left no stone unturned down that path.
- That I, that I left no stone unturned, that I, you know, went to the hard practices that I, that I faced my demons.
Examples
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Intrepid social scientists left no stone unturned in their quest to find the formula.
Blog text (11) -
About the author: Nina is a freelance writer and travel nut who will leave no stone unturned in her quest to discover the very best on offer in a destination.
Blog text (11) -
We are now putting that right and we will leave no stone unturned to put that right.
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I was trying to fill a hole and I needed to make sure that I left no stone unturned down that path.
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I will leave no stone unturned.
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We must leave no stone unturned.
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We had to leave no stone unturned.
Academic text (2000) -
Federal investigators say they are leaving no stone unturned in this investigation, though they say it will be a long process.
Blog text (11) -
These leaders analyze and ask questions about each step, thus leaving no stone unturned.
Blog text (2) -
Grace instructed his employees to leave no stone unturned in their search to root out inefficiency.
Synonyms
190
1.2
To look carefully for something or someone
7
4.2
Do everything you can to achieve something important
2
7.2
Search carefully in many places to find someone or something
2
3.9
Do everything possible to achieve something
1
3.9
To search everywhere for something that is lost
1
5.9
To try very hard and do anything to achieve something
To find something after a careful search
Find and catch someone or something after a long difficult search
Antonyms
How Thorough
- Informal
17
5.2
- Informal
8
4.4
∞
2.8
∞
1.0
∞
1.0
222
1.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to search everywhere / make every possible effort' is metaphorically related to the idea of turning over stones to look underneath, so a learner who recognises 'leave', 'no', 'stone' and the verb 'turn' could plausibly infer the sense. However, the phrase is a conventionalized metaphor and relies on the idiomatic collocation 'leave no ... unturned' (and the form 'unturned' may be opaque), so it is not fully compositionally predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure despite helpful cross-linguistic parallels.
Etymology
Leave no stone unturned comes from the image of someone lifting every stone and turning it over so none are left unturned while they search for something hidden. That's why it now means 'to search everywhere' or 'make every possible effort'.