tease out

verb

1. tr, adverb to extract (information) with difficulty

Idioms and Phrases

Lure out, obtain or extract with effort, as in We had a hard time teasing the wedding date out of him . This term alludes to the literal sense of tease , “untangle or release something with a pointed tool.” [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

But once you tease out fact from fake, “Disclaimer” is a fairly straightforward revenge story, though whether or not the revenge is deserved is a central question of its contortionist plot.

From Los Angeles Times

Murphy’s work always tries to tease out a metanarrative about the American condition, whether the topic celebrates fame and glamor or indictment of our failings and excesses.

From Salon

The UK study compared the eating habits of identical and non-identical twins from 16 months to 13 years old to tease out how much is due to genetics and how much to the environment.

From BBC

Could you help tease out the connection between committing crimes yourself, running an administration where you are literally saying through the use of your pardon power that corruption is OK, and the kind of world that a once and potentially future President Trump is building?

From Slate

The way to tease out cause and effect is to take a group of people and randomly assign some of them to play video games while keeping others game-free to serve as controls.

From Los Angeles Times