Word.ws English Dictionary

leaving no stone unturned

leaving no stone unturned is the present participle and gerund of leave no stone unturned.

Meaning of leave no stone unturned

Verb

leave no stone unturned (third-person singular simple present leaves no stone unturned, present participle leaving no stone unturned, simple past and past participle left no stone unturned)

  1. (idiomatic) To search or investigate thoroughly.
    • “This case of police torture and murder is shocking. But this is not the first case and it is unlikely to be the last case until and unless the police conduct serious interrogations and investigations and leave no stones unturned,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.2021 August 25, Tassanee Vejpongsa, “Video sparks arrest of Thai police in drug suspect's death”, in The Washington Post, retrieved 26 Aug 2021
  2. (figuratively) To perform a task carefully and thoroughly, not missing any step.
    • [He] left unturned no stone / To make my guilt appear, and hide his own.1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

Questions about leaving no stone unturned

What is leaving no stone unturned the present participle and gerund of?
Leaving no stone unturned is the present participle and gerund of leave no stone unturned.

Words near leaving no stone unturned in the dictionary

  1. leaving it be
  2. leaving it out
  3. leaving little to the imagination
  4. leaving much to be desired
  5. leaving no crumbs
  6. leaving no stone unturned
  7. leaving no trace
  8. leaving off
  9. leaving on
  10. leaving on the table
  11. leaving one's mark

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaving no stone unturned (page history and authors); leave no stone unturned (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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