Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To search through (something) thoroughly and often roughly.
- transitive verb To go through (a place) stealing valuables and causing disarray; pillage.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Detailed search or inquisition; careful investigation.
- noun A ransacking; search for plunder; pillage; sack.
- To search thoroughly; seek carefully in all parts of; explore, point by point, for what is desired; overhaul in detail.
- To sack; pillage completely; strip by plundering.
- To obtain by ransacking or pillage; seize upon; carry off; ravish.
- To violate; deflower: as, “ransackt chastity,”
- To make penetrating search or inquisition; pry; rummage.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To make a thorough search.
- noun rare The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage.
- transitive verb To search thoroughly; to search every place or part of.
- transitive verb To plunder; to pillage completely.
- transitive verb obsolete To violate; to ravish; to defiour.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
loot orpillage . See alsosack . - verb transitive To make a
vigorous andthorough search of (a place, person) with a view tostealing something, especially when leaving behind a state ofdisarray . - verb archaic To
examine carefully; to investigate.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb steal goods; take as spoils
- verb search thoroughly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It is true, Hawley said, that TSA agents open the luggage of all selectees (the word "ransack" seems another case of the clerk editorializing).
From the WSJ Opinion Archives James Taranto 2007
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I-9 audit, asking for records instead of what he described as a "ransack" of the business, which started at 8: 30 a.m.
The Orange County Register - News Headlines : Top Stories 2010
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It is famously one of the most troubling poems in the Psalter, giving conniptions to theologians, who ransack the life of David for an enemy vile enough to deserve a song so hard to hear as God's inspired word.
David Van Biema: Bad News Psalms David Van Biema 2012
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I said “back in the days of the stress tests,” that particular epoch, a time when the banks were tied and gagged and on their knees, and we, the American people, had an opportunity to ransack THEIR house.
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It is famously one of the most troubling poems in the Psalter, giving conniptions to theologians, who ransack the life of David for an enemy vile enough to deserve a song so hard to hear as God's inspired word.
David Van Biema: Bad News Psalms David Van Biema 2012
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I'm pretty sure this would impact this problem in a good way, cause if I was trying to ransack a 200 'tanker and I saw armed men keeping watch, I'll go elsewhere in my fishing boat and look for easier prey.
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They ransack everything from 1960s handclaps to 1950s-style twangs.
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Throw petrol over a policeman, shout for people to be killed, ransack shops, launch everything you can lift at the police = no problem. on January 12, 2009 at 6: 49 pm | Reply Jack Straw
All That Trouble Over A Footballer « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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Patrician vicissitudes run ransack with benign alignments of the brain.
Satan and the Moon Bill Yarrow 2011
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I'm pretty sure this would impact this problem in a good way, cause if I was trying to ransack a 200 'tanker and I saw armed men keeping watch, I'll go elsewhere in my fishing boat and look for easier prey.
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