From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdragnetdrag‧net /ˈdræɡnet/ noun [countable] 1 SCPa system in which the police look for criminals, using very thorough methods2 SCPa net that is pulled along the bottom of a river or lake, to bring up things that may be there
Examples from the Corpus
dragnet• But billions of dollars seem to have eluded the financial dragnet.• Police were still searching, however, for 19 people who slipped the first dragnet.• a police dragnet• More than three hundred teenage MexicanAmericans were arrested in the ensuing police dragnet.• The method of fishing employed was to secure one end of the dragnet on the shore and the other on the boat.• And intelligence sources last night denied early reports that one van had slipped through their dragnet.• Soon the first tracksuited figures stumbled from the trees into the waiting dragnet.DragnetDragnet a US television programme from the 1950s about the Los Angeles police. The main character, Sgt Joe Friday, is known for saying ‘Just the facts, ma'am’. 