Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rummage \Rum"mage\ (?; 48), n. [For roomage, fr. room; hence originally, a making room, a packing away closely. See Room.]
(Naut.) A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship; also, the act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage; -- formerly written romage. [Obs.]
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A searching carefully by looking into every corner, and by turning things over.
He has made such a general rummage and reform in the office of matrimony.
--Walpole.Rummage sale, a clearance sale of unclaimed goods in a public store, or of odds and ends which have accumulated in a shop.
--Simmonds.
Wiktionary
n. informal sale of donated items, usually to fund the programs of a church or charity.
WordNet
n. a sale of donated articles [syn: jumble sale]
Usage examples of "rummage sale".
The cold cuts had been picked over as thoroughly as the dimebook tray at a rummage sale.
What she needs is a different coat, picked up at a rummage sale, crumpled into a suitcase.
A vast rummage sale was falling out of the sky: tape recorders and rugs and a riding lawnmower with the grass-caked blade whirling in its housing and a black lawn-jockey and an aquarium with the fish still swimming in it.
It just looked like it had been bought at a neighborhood rummage sale and would be sold the same way.
Suddenly, crazily, be saw Arnie at four, astride a red trike he and Regina had gotten at a rummage sale (Arnie at four had called them 'Momma's rubbage sales').
The garment had probably been donated to a church rummage sale or maybe he'd bought it from someone weighing forty pounds more.
I like to kick up my heels, but about the best we can manage is a rummage sale now and then.