Definition of "ransack"

ransack

/ˈɹænsæk/

verb
third-person singular simple present ransacks, present participle ransacking, simple past and past participle ransacked
1. (transitive) To loot or pillage. See also sack.
  Quotations
  Their vow is made / To ransack Troy.
  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, [Act I, scene prologue]
  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!'
  2019 October 30, Next Level Games, Luigi's Mansion 3, v1.4.0, Nintendo, level/area: Main Observation Room (15F: Master Suite)
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.
  Quotations
  to ransack every corner of their […] hearts
  1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727
3. (archaic) To examine carefully; to investigate.
  Quotations
  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 quotation)
  1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII
4. To violate; to ravish; to deflower.
  Quotations
  Rich spoil of ransackt chastity.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 5
noun
plural ransacks
1. Eager search.
  Quotations
  Perhaps this stone also will turn up in the ransack of the sultan's treasury.
  1861, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art

Definition of "ransack"

ransack

verb

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noun

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