1
as in looting
to search through with the intent of committing robbery
it was clear that the thieves who had ransacked the museum were professionals—they bypassed most of the exhibits and went straight for the vaults
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in searching
to look through (as a place) carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something
I've ransacked the whole house for that book you lent me and it's nowhere to be found
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in plundering
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ransacking
Verb
-
Deputies started searching the area and soon spotted a set of footprints in the snow that led away from the road.—
Mitchell Willetts,
Kansas City Star,
5 Jan. 2025 -
Federal investigators later found bomb-making materials while searching Jabbar's Texas home.—
Cara Tabachnick,
CBS News,
4 Jan. 2025
Verb
-
Dallas sacking Washington’s quarterbacks six times — Daniels four times — on Sunday upped the Commanders’ allowed sacks total to 22 over the last five games.—
Ben Standig,
The Athletic,
5 Jan. 2025
-
Dallas sacking Washington’s quarterbacks six times — Daniels four times — on Sunday upped the Commanders’ allowed sacks total to 22 over the last five games.—
Ben Standig,
The Athletic,
5 Jan. 2025
Noun
-
Vikings, for example, used the extra daylight to sneak in a longer pillage sesh.—
Corey Buhay,
Outside Online,
19 June 2025
-
Otherwise, illicit actors will continue to profit from their pillage.—
Justyna Gudzowska,
Foreign Affairs,
2 June 2025
Noun
-
California was also a land of plunder, a place where rampant capitalism had merged with unrealistic fantasy.—
Andrew Moore,
New York Times,
15 May 2025
-
At the Jeu de Paume museum, Valland took many risks to safeguard its treasures and record the massive plunder of artwork across France.—
Pat Tompkins,
AFAR Media,
18 June 2025
Noun
-
Last Friday, Damien Marshall and other King & Spalding attorneys on behalf of MSG filed a memorandum of law in opposition to Oakley’s motion for what are known as spoliation sanctions, meaning a punishment for failure to preserve relevant evidence.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
14 May 2025
-
Chain of Custody Issues: The longer the delay between an incident and preserving mobile evidence, the more opportunities exist for spoliation claims about data modification or tampering.—
Lars Daniel,
Forbes,
24 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Researchers think that large, burrowing predators like may have driven the rapid evolution of stream-dwelling salamanders in Appalachia by introducing new levels of competition and predation.—
Jenny Lehmann,
Discover Magazine,
18 June 2025
-
One possible explanation for this is that an obvious reaction might draw attention to their nests and leave their eggs more at risk of predation.—
Sara Hashemi,
Smithsonian Magazine,
16 June 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Ransacking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ransacking. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share