draw blank

English

Verb

draw blank (third-person singular simple present draws blank, present participle drawing blank, simple past drew blank, past participle drawn blank)

1. (transitive, now rare) To search (something) without finding what one was looking for.
   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 24:

     ‘Last time we were here we drew the whole place blank, and old D. cursed the keeper's head off and accused him of poisoning the foxes, so I suppose he did it to get a bit of his own back!’

See also

• draw a blank