Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Rummage
Rum′mage
(?; 48)
, Noun.
1.
(Naut.)
A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship; also, the act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage; – formerly written romage.
[Obs.]
2.
A searching carefully by looking into every corner, and by turning things over.
He has made such a general
rummage
and reform in the office of matrimony. Walpole.
Rummage sale
, a clearance sale of unclaimed goods in a public store, or of odds and ends which have accumulated in a shop.
Simmonds.
Rum′mage
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Rummaged
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Rummaging
.] 1.
(Naut.)
To make room in, as a ship, for the cargo; to move about, as packages, ballast, so as to permit close stowage; to stow closely; to pack; – formerly written
roomage
, and romage
. [Obs.]
They might bring away a great deal more than they do, if they would take pain in the
romaging
. Hakluyt.
2.
To search or examine thoroughly by looking into every corner, and turning over or removing goods or other things; to examine, as a book, carefully, turning over leaf after leaf.
He . . . searcheth his pockets, and taketh his keys, and so
rummageth
all his closets and trunks. Howell.
What schoolboy of us has not
rummaged
his Greek dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account! M. Arnold.
Rum′mage
,Verb.
I.
To search a place narrowly.
I have often
rummaged
for old books in Little Britain and Duck Lane. Swift.
[His house] was haunted with a jolly ghost, that . . .
. . .
. . .
rummaged
like a rat. Tennyson.
Webster 1828 Edition
Rummage
RUM'MAGE
,Noun.
RUM'MAGE
,Verb.
T.
To search narrowly by looking into every corner and turning over or removing goods or other things.
Our greedy seamen rummage every hold.
RUM'MAGE
,Verb.
I.
I have often rummaged for old books in Little-Britain and Duck-Lane.
Definition 2024
rummage
rummage
English
Verb
rummage (third-person singular simple present rummages, present participle rummaging, simple past and past participle rummaged)
- (transitive, nautical) To arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.
- (transitive, nautical) To search a vessel for smuggled goods.
- After the long voyage, the customs officers rummaged the ship.
- (transitive) To search something thoroughly and with disregard for the way in which things were arranged.
- She rummaged her purse in search of the keys.
- The burglars rummaged the entire house for cash and jewellery.
- Howell
- He […] searcheth his pockets, and taketh his keys, and so rummageth all his closets and trunks.
- Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
- What schoolboy of us has not rummaged his Greek dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account!
- 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.
- (intransitive) To hastily search for something in a confined space and among many items by carelessly turning things over or pushing things aside.
- She rummaged in the drawers trying to find the missing sock.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
Translations
to search something which contains many items
to search something thoroughly and with disregard
|
|
to hastily search for
Noun
rummage (plural rummages)
- (obsolete) Commotion; disturbance.
- A thorough search, usually resulting in disorder.
- Walpole
- He has such a general rummage and reform in the office of matrimony.
- Walpole
- An unorganized collection of miscellaneous objects; a jumble.
- (nautical) A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship; also, the act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage; formerly written romage.
Quotations
"And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations
The source of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this post-haste and rummage in the land."
- Horatio, in "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, act 1 scene 1 l 103-106