ransack

verb ran·sack \ ˈran-ˌsak , (ˌ)ran-ˈsak \

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

Definition of ransack

transitive verb

1 a : to search thoroughly

b : to examine closely and carefully

2 : to search through to commit robbery : plunder

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ransacker

noun

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Examples of ransack in a Sentence

Robbers ransacked the apartment looking for money.
The room had been ransacked.

Recent Examples of ransack from the Web

Paris Hilton would soon be dethroned by Kim Kardashian, the woman who organized the very closet the Bling Ring ransacked.

— jessica goldstein, The Cut, "I Think About This a Lot: This Bling Ring Member’s Voice-mail Meltdown," 16 Apr. 2018
Authorities said Mulzac had ransacked the home and fled to his native Massachusetts, leaving the retired nurse to die.

— crystal hill, miamiherald, "‘Thank God we are finally rid of you,’ family says to son who killed adoptive mother | Miami Herald," 12 Apr. 2018
As the trio pulled up to the grocery store, the business appeared to be completely ransacked, with only debris and a few cans here and there.

— Chicago Tribune, "Rage, riots, ruin," 9 Apr. 2018
It was found at the bottom of a 30ft pit, in a tomb that had been ransacked and robbed in antiquity.

— nell lewis, CNN, "FBI cracks the case of the 4,000-year-old mummy's head," 6 Apr. 2018
With more than 31,000 people last year reporting the same dismal ordeal of returning to their vehicle to find a window shattered and the inside ransacked, San Francisco claimed the worst break-in rate of any big city in the state.

— San Francisco Chronicle, "San Francisco’s auto burglary hot spots," 17 Mar. 2018
To date, that other evidence -- shell casings from a .25-caliber handgun that the killer would have touched while loading the weapon and ransacked jewelry boxes that were also likely handled by the killer -- has not been tested.

— andrea simakis, cleveland.com, "Tyrone Noling case: Ohio Supreme Court rules on DNA evidence," 6 Mar. 2018
Maxis Mens Wear had been torched; Your Home-Town Newspapers had been ransacked.

— paul duggan, Washington Post, "After bloodshed in earlier U.S. riots, D.C. police showed restraint in 1968 unrest," 26 Mar. 2018
Or, find the team that ransacked New York City two weeks ago and win the whole darn thing.

— nick baumgardner, Detroit Free Press, "Michigan basketball can win NCAA title if it recaptures balance," 20 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ransack.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Ransack carries the image of a house being torn out of order, as might happen when you are frantically searching for something. This is appropriate given the word's origin. Ransack derives via Middle English from Old Norse "rannsaka"; the "rann" in rannsaka means "house." The second half of "rannsaka" is related to an Old English word, secan, meaning "to seek." But our modern use of the word isn't restricted to houses. You can ransack a drawer, a suitcase, or even the contents of a book (for information). A now-obsolete frequentative form of "ransack," "ransackle," gave us our adjective "ramshackle."