rummage
Other forms: rummaging; rummaged; rummages
Rummage means to search for something, but in a scattered, disorganized manner. You can rummage through your drawer looking for a lost sock, or you could even hold "a rummage sale" to sell off all your socks that are missing their mates.
Ahoy, mateys: the word rummage hails from a sea-faring background. The Middle Dutch ruim, Germanic rum, and Old English rum all referred to a compartment on a ship, probably stemming from the Middle French verb arrumer, "to stow goods in the hold of a ship." The idea of rummaging as searching was first recorded in the 1620s. The first rummage sale also had its ship connection, as it was a sale on the docks of unclaimed items.
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search haphazardly“We rummaged through the drawers”type of:searchsubject to a search
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a jumble of things to be given away
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a thorough search for something (often causing disorder or confusion)“he gave the attic a good rummage but couldn't find his skis”synonyms: ransacking
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Vocabulary lists containing rummage
On his eleventh birthday, orphan Harry Potter learns the shocking truth: he's a wizard about to begin his education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
In this best-selling novel, sixteen-year-old Starr's life is turned upside down when she witnesses the death of her friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer.
Arnold Spirit, Jr., a young cartoonist who lives on the Spokane Indian reservation, decides to transfer to a school in which he will be the only American Indian student.