Library / English Dictionary

RANSACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Search thoroughly

Example:

They combed the area for the missing child

Synonyms:

comb; ransack

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "ransack" is one way to...):

search (subject to a search)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

The customs agents ransack the bags for drugs

Derivation:

ransacking (a thorough search for something (often causing disorder or confusion))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Steal goods; take as spoils

Example:

During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners

Synonyms:

despoil; foray; loot; pillage; plunder; ransack; reave; rifle; strip

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "ransack" is one way to...):

take (take by force)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ransack"):

deplume; displume (strip of honors, possessions, or attributes)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

It is, as I have said, a labyrinth of an old house, especially the original wing, which is now practically uninhabited; but we ransacked every room and cellar without discovering the least sign of the missing man.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At this moment, however, the rooms bore every mark of having been recently and hurriedly ransacked; clothes lay about the floor, with their pockets inside out; lock-fast drawers stood open; and on the hearth there lay a pile of grey ashes, as though many papers had been burned.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Mrs. Fairfax was summoned to give information respecting the resources of the house in shawls, dresses, draperies of any kind; and certain wardrobes of the third storey were ransacked, and their contents, in the shape of brocaded and hooped petticoats, satin sacques, black modes, lace lappets, &c., were brought down in armfuls by the abigails; then a selection was made, and such things as were chosen were carried to the boudoir within the drawing-room.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The whole place was turned upside down, drawers burst open, and presses ransacked, with the result that an odd volume of Pope’s ‘Homer,’ two plated candlesticks, an ivory letter-weight, a small oak barometer, and a ball of twine are all that have vanished.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)