riffle through

idiom

chiefly British
: to search through something quickly and carelessly often in order to take or steal something
He riffled through her purse while she was out of the room.

Examples of riffle through in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But Ishika Singh wants to build a robot that can make dinner—one that can go into a kitchen, riffle through the fridge and cabinets, pull out ingredients that will coalesce into a tasty dish or two, then set the table. David Berreby, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024 Lucy Sante and Darryl Pinckney, in the living room, riffle through vinyl records; Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy sit down for tea, his spiked with gin. Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023 Keep reading to check out more weekend deals, or head straight to Amazon to riffle through everything else that's on sale right now. Amy Schulman, PEOPLE.com, 6 May 2022 Meacham’s long riffle through the files of the totally familiar is not without some interesting findings. Thomas Frank, Harper's Magazine, 22 June 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'riffle through.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near riffle through

Cite this Entry

“Riffle through.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/riffle%20through. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.

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