ransack
English
Etymology
From Middle English ransaken, from Old Norse rannsaka, from rann (“house”) + saka (“search”); probably influenced by sack. Compare Danish ransage, Swedish rannsaka.
Pronunciation
Audio (UK) (file) - IPA(key): /ˈɹænsæk/
- Homophone: RANSAC
Verb
ransack (third-person singular simple present ransacks, present participle ransacking, simple past and past participle ransacked)
- (transitive) To loot or pillage. See also 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 606515358, [Act I, scene prologue]:
- Their vow is made / To ransack Troy.
- 2019 October 30, Next Level Games, Luigi's Mansion 3, 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!'
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- (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
- 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), 6th edition, London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, OCLC 21766567:
- to ransack every corner of their […] hearts
- (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 quote)
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- To violate; to ravish; to deflower.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 5:
- Rich spoil of ransackt chastity.
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Translations
to loot or pillage
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to make a thorough search or examination for plunder
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Noun
ransack (plural ransacks)
- 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.
- 1861, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art
Anagrams
- rackans