ransack

From Middle English ransaken, from Old Norse rannsaka, from rann (“house”) + saka (“search”); probably influenced by sack. Compare Danish ransage, Swedish rannsaka.

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹænsæk/
• Homophone: RANSAC

ransack (third-person singular simple present ransacks, present participle ransacking, simple past and past participle ransacked)

1. (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!'

2. (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

3. (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)

4. 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.

ransack (plural ransacks)

1. 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.

• rackans