Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sale of assorted secondhand objects contributed by donors to raise money for a charity.
- noun A sale, especially of unclaimed or excess goods, as at a warehouse or wharf.
- noun A sale of used household belongings, typically held on the seller's property.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A sale of garments that have been worn and of cast off furnishings of any description, at very low prices, usually held in connection with church work for the benefit of the poor.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Informal sale ofdonated items , usually tofund theprograms of achurch orcharity .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a sale of donated articles
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rummage sale.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
reesetee commented on the word rummage sale
Rummage was a nautical term describing the arrangement of casks and other cargo in the hold of a vessel. "Rummage goods" came to describe outdated items, unclaimed goods at docks, or odds and ends from warehouses, which were sold at clearance sales.
January 8, 2008
yarb commented on the word rummage sale
Wot?? I went to rummage sales all the time when I was young and assumed they were so called because they entailed rummaging through endless piles of castoff tat.
January 8, 2008
reesetee commented on the word rummage sale
The things you learn on Wordie. ;-)
January 8, 2008
pterodactyl commented on the word rummage sale
According to this map, American usage of "rummage sale" is clustered around Milwaukee, of all places.
Huh.
April 22, 2008
trivet commented on the word rummage sale
In Oregon, where I grew up, people had yard and garage sales, but churches and schools had rummages.
April 22, 2008