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verb (used with object)
1.
to search thoroughly or vigorously through (a house, receptacle, etc.): They ransacked the house for the missing letter.
2.
to search through for plunder; pillage: The enemy ransacked the entire town.
Origin:
1200–50; Middle English ransaken < Old Norse rannsaka to search, examine (for evidence of crime), equivalent to rann house + saka search (variant of soekja to seek)
1200–50; Middle English ransaken < Old Norse rannsaka to search, examine (for evidence of crime), equivalent to rann house + saka search (variant of soekja to seek)
Related forms
ran·sack·er, noun
un·ran·sacked, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Ransack
is one of our favorite verbs.
So is fletcherise. Does it mean:
| to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly. |
| to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle. |
Example Sentences
- He said the robbers also tied him up and then continued to ransack the house.
- Watch a group of macaques run amok in a market, raid an empty kitchen, and ransack a bootlegger's cache.
- The purpose, they say, is not to help people ransack their lovers' inboxes but to perform more benign tasks.
Collins
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
ransack
mid-13c., from O.N. rannsaka "to pillage," lit. "search the house" (especially legally, for stolen goods), from rann "house," from P.Gmc. *rasnan (c.f. Goth. razn, O.E. ærn "house") + saka "to search," related to O.N. soekja "seek" (see seek). Sense influenced by sack (v.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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