RUMMAGE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Rummage

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/rˈəmɪdʒ/ Listen

verb

Rummage v. t. (past & past part. rummaged; pres. part. rummaging)

(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."

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

Rummage v. i. To search a place narrowly. "I have often rummaged for old books in Little Britain and Duck Lane." "(His house) was haunted with a jolly ghost, that....... rummaged like a rat."

noun

Rummage n.

(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.)

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."

Rummage sale, a clearance sale of unclaimed goods in a public store, or of odds and ends which have accumulated in a shop.

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Etymology of 'Rummage'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rummage" Quotes from Famous Books

... a witness he is not bound to answer a question, until I see that it has some bearing and probable tendency to accuse him; otherwise I must rummage all the statute books for penalties to put the witnesses on their guard—I must not only carry all the penal laws in my head, but mention them to every witness who comes before me ...

— The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane, • William Brodie Gurney

... of old papers, this gentleman, when he comes into the property, naturally begins to rummage, don't you see?" said ...

— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... I've been having a solitary rummage among old things. It is my last night here. We're leaving for ...

— The Spenders - A Tale of the Third Generation • Harry Leon Wilson

... of corn bread! Try, my old cock, and rummage up a crust or two, for hung beef is devilish tight work for the teeth, without a little bread of some sort for ...

— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... frail and treacherous; and we think many excellent things, which for want of making a deep impression, we can never recover afterwards. In vain we hunt for the stragling Idea, and rummage all the Solitudes and Retirements of our Soul, for a lost Thought, which has left no Track or Foot-steps behind it: The swift Off-spring of the Mind is gone; 'tis dead as soon as born; nay, often proves abortive in the moment it was conceiv'd: The only way therefore to retain our ...

— The Present State of Wit (1711) - In A Letter To A Friend In The Country • John Gay

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