Crossword clues for ransack
ransack
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ransack \Ran"sack\, v. i. To make a thorough search.
To ransack in the tas [heap] of bodies dead.
--Chaucer.
Ransack \Ran"sack\ (r[a^]n"s[a^]k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ransacked (-s[a^]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Ransacking.] [OE. ransaken, Icel. rannsaka to explore, examine; rann a house (akin to Goth. razn house, AS. r[ae]sn plank, beam) + the root of s[ae]kja to seek, akin to E. seek. See Seek, and cf. Rest repose.]
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To search thoroughly; to search every place or part of; as, to ransack a house.
To ransack every corner of their . . . hearts.
--South. -
To plunder; to pillage completely.
Their vow is made To ransack Troy.
--Shak. -
To violate; to ravish; to defiour. [Obs.]
Rich spoil of ransacked chastity.
--Spenser.
Ransack \Ran"sack\, n. The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage.
Even your father's house
Shall not be free from ransack.
--J. Webster.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-13c., from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse rannsaka "to pillage," literally "search the house" (especially legally, for stolen goods), from rann "house," from Proto-Germanic *rasnan (c.f. Gothic razn, Old English ærn "house;" see barn) + saka "to search," related to Old Norse soekja "seek" (see seek). Sense influenced by sack (v.). Related: Ransacked; ransacking.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (label en transitive) To loot or pillage. ''See also'' '''sack'''. 2 (label en 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. 3 (label en archaic) To examine carefully; to investigate.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Ransack is the name of several fictional characters from the Transformers series. Ransack was first created in 1985 as one of the Insecticons. Since then the name was used for a variety of other Transformers characters.
Usage examples of "ransack".
I saw Partin in the restaurant, I knew Sparacino had sent him to make sure I was really meeting with you, to see what I was up to, just like he sent the so-called Jeb Price to ransack your office.
When the husband returned home, he found the place had been completely ransacked, leading police to wonder whether the primary motive had actually been burglary and the rape and murder a secondary crime of opportunity.
The bedroom was ransacked, with clothing, bank statements, and other personal effects scattered throughout.
Drawers would have been ransacked and something obvious would have been taken.
The three of them ransacked the room, but no small, round box with the Campion name scrawled on it in elegant pink script could be found.
It seemed as though this were a proof of his presence more tangible than all the ransacked shelves put together.
The regiment sent to arrest us surrounded the house, ransacked it from attic to cellar, found nothing, and went away.
Without taking the trouble to lean down and look, they ransacked under the beds with bayonet thrusts.
And I had ransacked it with some sort of army at my command, and now Entipy was my slave?
However, when she opened the door to her office she found that the space had been ransacked during the night.
How he found out Wiggin was the original Ender the Xenocide, but then his computer was ransacked and the files disappeared.
But the house had been generally ransacked, including the file cabinet that held the records for the Krewe of Minerva.
Sick of a surfeit of pleasures, the whining monarch, counselled by his soothsayers, ransacked his kingdom for the shirt of a happy subject.
Then Weekes is murdered and his house is ransacked and no papers are left in it.
Nevertheless the man who sent the gall is murdered and his house ransacked and his granddaughter vanished.