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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Ransack


RAN'SACK, verb transitive [Eng. rand, and ran is rapine. The last syllable coincides with the English verb to sack, to pillage.]

1. To plunder; to pillage completely; to strip by plundering; as, to ransack a house or city.

Their vow is made to ransack Troy.

2. To search thoroughly; to enter and search every place or part. It seems often to convey the sense of opening doors and parcels, and turning over things in search; as, to ransack files of papers.

I ransack the several caverns.

3. To violate; to ravish; to deflower; as ransacked chastity. [Not in use.]