rifle through

idiom

: to search through something quickly and carelessly often in order to take or steal something

He rifled through the papers on his desk.

Examples of rifle through in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chatbots can’t see your calendar, peer into your email inbox or rifle through your online shopping history — the kinds of information an A.I. assistant would need in order to give you the best possible help with your daily tasks. —Kevin Roose, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2023

After a few visits, Mr. Lewis could rifle through Mr. Bankman-Fried’s desk without anyone blinking. —Christopher Beam, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2023

The holster grants easy access to them, so there’s no need to rifle through a full backpack to find them in the case of an emergency. —Tom Price, Popular Mechanics, 14 Aug. 2023

Sometimes, ahead of slated cremations, Lodge allegedly invited buyers to come to the morgue and rifle through the body parts. —Emily Palmer, Peoplemag, 15 June 2023

Despite the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, these government officers rifle through families’ refrigerators and medicine cabinets and inspect children’s unclothed bodies without informed consent. —Eli Hager, ProPublica, 5 June 2023

Police officials also released surveillance camera footage of Hale firing an AR-15-style rifle through the school's glass doors and stalking the hallways looking for victims to shoot. —Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 26 May 2023

Daniel Perry faces up to life in prison for the 2020 fatal shooting of 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who was legally carrying an AK-47 rifle through downtown Austin during a summer of nationwide unrest over police killings and racial injustice. —Jim Vertuno, Chron, 4 May 2023

Armed Taliban intelligence and security agents show up unannounced at people’s homes to rifle through them, and search their phones at checkpoints across the city. —David Zucchino The New York Times, New York Times, 12 Aug. 2022