To search through something roughly and messily, usually looking for something valuable or to cause destruction.
From Dutch 'ransaken,' possibly combining 'ransel' (to search) and 'sack' (to plunder). It entered English during the 1500s with the sense of rough searching combined with stealing or destroying.
Medieval Dutch traders and raiders gave us this word, and it perfectly describes that chaotic scene in movies where someone tears apart a room—the word sounds like the mess it describes!
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