Word.ws English Dictionary

reverse ferret

reverse ferret noun: a sudden volte-face in an organisation's editorial line on a certain issue, especially one without acknowledgment of the previous position.

Noun

reverse ferret (plural reverse ferrets)

  1. (UK) A sudden volte-face in an organisation's editorial line on a certain issue, especially one without acknowledgment of the previous position.

Forms of reverse ferret

pluralreverse ferrets

Origin of reverse ferret

The term originates from Kelvin MacKenzie's time at the The Sun. His preferred description of the role of journalists when it came to public figures was to "stick a ferret up their trousers". This meant making their lives uncomfortable, and was based on the northern sport of ferret-legging. However, when it became clear that the tide of public opinion had turned against the paper's line, MacKenzie would burst from his office shouting "Reverse Ferret!"

Questions about reverse ferret

What does reverse ferret mean?
Reverse ferret means a sudden volte-face in an organisation's editorial line on a certain issue, especially one without acknowledgment of the previous position.
What part of speech is reverse ferret?
Reverse ferret is a noun.
What is the plural of reverse ferret?
The plural of reverse ferret is reverse ferrets.

Words near reverse ferret in the dictionary

  1. reverse engineers
  2. reverse exacta
  3. reverse exactas
  4. reverse fault
  5. reverse faults
  6. reverse ferret
  7. reverse ferrets
  8. reverse forecast
  9. reverse forecasts
  10. reverse gangbang
  11. reverse gangbanged

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reverse ferret (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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Cite this entry: “reverse ferret.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reverse_ferret. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.