as in searching
to look through (as a place) carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something
rifled the desk drawer in search of the insurance policy
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Recent Examples of rifling
Heise worked her way into the left faceoff circle before rifling a shot just under the crossbar to give the Frost the win and keep Vancouver winless on the road.
—
CBS News, 28 Dec. 2025
Forest respond two minutes later after the hosts fail to deal with Dan Ndoye’s cross, Ibrahim Sangare rifling home.
—Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2025
Best All-Time NFL Wide Receivers Starting slow in the NFL matters more than ending the season with a win streak, unless that win streak is rifling off 8-10 wins.
—James Brizuela, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Sep. 2025
CBS News, 28 Dec. 2025
Forest respond two minutes later after the hosts fail to deal with Dan Ndoye’s cross, Ibrahim Sangare rifling home.
—Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2025
Best All-Time NFL Wide Receivers Starting slow in the NFL matters more than ending the season with a win streak, unless that win streak is rifling off 8-10 wins.
—James Brizuela, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rifling
Verb
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Rescuers retrieved eight people alive and were searching for the missing still trapped after a huge mound of garbage and debris collapsed on them in the village of Binaliw in Cebu city, police said.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
9 Jan. 2026
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Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Wednesday that it had been notified that teams had recommenced searching for Ran Gvili.—
Wafaa Shurafa,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
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More than six years had passed since Capote, looking for a quick non-fiction project to earn some cash, had run across a wire-service story from Kansas while scanning the back pages of The New York Times.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Jan. 2026
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While scanning the shoreline, the helicopter crew discovered a man who matched the missing surfer's description and was stranded on rocks outside of Surfer's Beach.—
Emily Mae Czachor,
CBS News,
12 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Police are combing through a Chicago condo searching for clues in a double murder case that started more than 300 miles away.—
Sara Machi,
CBS News,
12 Jan. 2026
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Historical researcher Segtnan came across the 1948 murder of a 9-year-old girl, Birgitta Sivander, while combing newspaper archives.—
Rebecca Hannigan,
PEOPLE,
10 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rifling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rifling. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.
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