Christian Caryl et al.Dana BowenTom WolfeC. P. Reynolds
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Ransack carries the image of a house being roughly disarranged, as might happen when you are frantically searching for something. This is appropriate given the word’s origin. Ransack comes, via Middle English, from the Old Norse word rannsaka: the rann in rannsaka means “house”; the second half of rannsaka is what is known as an “ablaut” variant of sœkja, meaning “to seek, search out.” But our modern use of the word isn’t restricted to houses. You can ransack a drawer, a suitcase, or even (by hurriedly looking through it) the contents of a book. Ransack also inspired another English word related to disorder and unsteadiness. A now-obsolete form of ransack, ransackle, gave us our adjective ramshackle, meaning “rickety” or “carelessly or loosely constructed.”
Examples of ransack in a Sentence
Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2024
The second smash-and-grab robbery occurred Feb. 13 when two men ransacked the jewelry store during business hours.
—Rosalio Ahumada, Sacramento Bee, 10 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for ransack 
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“Ransack.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ransack. Accessed 28 May. 2024.
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ransack
verb
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