Rummage word meaning and definition

[noun] a thorough search for something (often causing disorder or confusion); "he gave the attic a good rummage but couldn't find his skis"
[noun] a jumble of things to be given away
[verb] search haphazardly; "We rummaged through the drawers"

\Rum"mage\ (?; 48), n. [For roomage, fr. room; hence originally, a making room, a packing away closely. See {Room}.] 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\, v. 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\, v. 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.

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