verb (Australian miners’).—To work an abandoned claim, or to wash old dirt; hence to search persistently. [Halliwell: = to take trouble, but cf., fosse, a ditch or excavation.] Also FOSSICKING = a living got as aforesaid; FOSSICKER = a man that works abandoned claims; FOSSICKING ABOUT = (American) SHINNING AROUND, or in England FERRETING (q.v.).
1870. Notes and Queries, 4 S., vi., p. 3.
1878. Fraser’s Magazine, Oct., p. 449. They are more suited … to plodding, FOSSICKING, persevering industry, than for hard work.
1887. G. A. SALA, in Illustrated London News, 12 March, p. 282, col. 2. ‘TO FOSSICK’ in the old digging days was to get a living by extracting gold from the refuse wash-dirt which previous diggers had abandoned as worthless.
1890. Illustrations, Jan., p. 158. After some ‘FOSSIKING’ we discover three or four huts within ‘cooee,’ all diggers, all ‘hatters,’ and mostly good fellows.
