ransack
Americanverb (used with object)
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to search thoroughly or vigorously through (a house, receptacle, etc.).
They ransacked the house for the missing letter.
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to search through for plunder; pillage.
The enemy ransacked the entire town.
verb
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to search through every part of (a house, box, etc); examine thoroughly
-
to plunder; pillage
Other Word Forms
- ransacker noun
- unransacked adjective
Etymology
Origin of ransack
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English ransaken, from Old Norse rannsaka “to search, examine (for evidence of crime),” equivalent to rann “house” + saka, variant of sœkja “to search;” seek )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As a housemate, he was catastrophic—overturning wastebaskets, ransacking drawers and drenching manuscripts.
The elephants, after ransacking her house and eating her corn, urinated on what remained of her grain supply.
The offices of several environmentalist groups were ransacked in the Charente-Maritime department.
From BBC
Indoors, rooms that had been neat and orderly five minutes earlier looked like they had been ransacked.
From Literature
One baby ransacked her belongings, another clung to her for months as a surrogate mother.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
