ransack Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb steal goods; take as spoils
    pillage; strip; despoil; plunder; foray; rifle; loot; reave.
    • During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners
  2. verb search thoroughly
    comb.
    • They combed the area for the missing child

WordNet

Ran"sack transitive verb
Etymology
OE. ransaken, Icel, rannsaka to explore, examine; rann a house (akin to Goth. razn house, AS. ræsn plank, beam) + the root of sækja to seek, akin to E. seek. See Seek, and cf. Rest repose.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Ransacked ; present participle & verbal noun Ransacking
Definitions
  1. To search thoroughly; to search every place or part of; as, to ransack a house.
    To ransack every corner of their . . . hearts. South.
  2. To plunder; to pillage completely.
    Their vow is made To ransack Troy. Shak.
  3. To violate; to ravish; to defiour. Obs.
    Rich spoil of ransacked chastity. Spenser.
Ran"sack intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To make a thorough search.
    To ransack in the tas [heap] of bodies dead. Chaucer.
Ran"sack noun
Definitions
  1. The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage. R.
    Even your father's house Shall not be free fromransack. J. Webster.

Webster 1913