rummage

What it means

1. transitivenauticalTo arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.
2. transitivenauticalTo search a vessel for smuggled goods.

   After the long voyage, the customs officers rummaged the ship.

3. transitiveTo search something thoroughly and with disregard for the way in which things were arranged.

   She rummaged her purse in search of the keys.

   4 more examples

   The burglars rummaged the entire house for cash and jewellery.

   He[…]searcheth his pockets, and taketh his keys, and so rummageth all his closets and trunks.

   1655, James Howell, “To the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mohun”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC

   What schoolboy of us has not rummaged his Greek dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account!

   1866, Matthew Arnold, The Study of Celtic Literature

   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.

   2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

In a sentence

After the long voyage, the customs officers rummaged the ship.

Where it comes from

1. Old Frencharrumage
2. Middle Englishronage
3. Englishrummage

From Middle English ronage, from Old French arrumage (compare French arrimage), from arrumer (“to arrange the cargo in the hold”) (compare French arrimer and Spanish arrumar).