RANSACK

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ransack mean? 

• RANSACK (verb)
  The verb RANSACK has 2 senses:

1. steal goods; take as spoils

2. search thoroughly

  Familiarity information: RANSACK used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RANSACK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ransack    ... he / she / it ransacks   
Past simple: ransacked   
Past participle: ransacked   
-ing form: ransacking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Steal goods; take as spoils

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

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

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Search thoroughly

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

comb; ransack

Context example:

They combed the area for the missing child

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))

 Context examples 

There were no other weapons, though I thoroughly ransacked the three remaining state-rooms.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As explained by Professor Summerlee, our cameras have been tampered with by the ape-men when they ransacked our camp, and most of our negatives ruined.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice she has been waylaid. There has been no result.

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

Mr. Ford did not wait, but ransacked his pockets, with the result of sixty cents.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The thieves ransacked the library and got very little for their pains.

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

Lady Brackenstall thinks that they were themselves so disturbed by the death of Sir Eustace that they did not ransack the house, as they would otherwise have done.

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

No, never: we might do what we pleased; ransack her desk and her workbox, and turn her drawers inside out; and she was so good-natured, she would give us anything we asked for.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You will learn from Poole how I have had London ransacked; it was in vain; and I am now persuaded that my first supply was impure, and that it was that unknown impurity which lent efficacy to the draught.

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

But Mr. Dashwood rejected any but thrilling tales, and as thrills could not be produced except by harrowing up the souls of the readers, history and romance, land and sea, science and art, police records and lunatic asylums, had to be ransacked for the purpose.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The furniture was scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before her flight.

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