ransack

From Middle English ransaken, from Old Norse rannsaka, from rann (“house”) + saka (“search”); probably influenced by sack. Compare Danish ransage, Swedish rannsaka.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹænsæk/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Homophone: RANSAC

ransack (third-person singular simple present ransacks, present participle ransacking, simple past and past participle ransacked)

1. (transitive) To loot or pillage.

   Synonym: sack

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene prologue]:

     Their vow is made / To ransack Troy.

   • 2019 October 30, Next Level Games, Luigi's Mansion 3, v1.4.0, Nintendo, level/area: Main Observation Room (15F: Master Suite):

     Hellen Gravely: 'You ransacked my hotel, captured my staff with that strange vacuum of yours... And to top it all off, you catnapped my sweetie, my little darling... My precious Polterkitty!'

2. (transitive) To make a vigorous and thorough search of (a place, person) with a view to stealing something, especially when leaving behind a state of disarray.

   to ransack a house for valuables

   • 1927, William Byron Mowery, Pirates Of The Muskeg:

     He ransacked his memory for a clew to that haunting familiarity. He tried to make himself believe it was just a crazy, senseless notion. But it persisted; he could not shake it off.

   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     to ransack every corner of their […] hearts

3. (archaic) To examine carefully; to investigate.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII:

     Thenne came there an olde monke whiche somtyme had ben a knyghte & behelde syre Melyas / And anone he ransakyd hym / & thenne he saide vnto syr Galahad I shal hele hym of this woūde by the grace of god within the terme of seuen wekes

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

4. To violate; to ravish; to deflower.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5:

     Rich spoil of ransackt chastity.

ransack (plural ransacks)

1. Eager search.
   • 1861, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art:

     Perhaps this stone also will turn up in the ransack of the sultan's treasury.

• rackans