ransackle

English

Verb

ransackle (third-person singular simple present ransackles, present participle ransackling, simple past and past participle ransackled)

1. To ransack.
   • 1633, Ben Jonson, The tale of a Tub.:

     And yet zay nothing for me, but devise All the strićt means, to ransackle me o' my money.

   • 1976, David Bergamini, Venus Development, page 183:

     “You're making it very tough for me,” said Fox. “Someone went into Yerkes Flats last night right under the helicopter cover. They ransackled the place, killed the caretaker —"

   • 1978, Hampton V. City of Chicago, page 17:

     On the latter date, the Black Panther Party offices were ransackled by police; typewriters sashed, the office set on fire; newspapers and food for the breakfast program and supplies for the health clinic destroyed, and the arrestees beaten.

   • 2019, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Dolefully, A Rampart Stands, page 52:

     I'd rather the sword drawn in a blink than the slow soul ransackled by the State.

Alternative forms

• ranshackle, ranshakle

Adjective

ransackle (comparative more ransackle, superlative most ransackle)

1. Alternative form of ramshackle
   • 1979, Diane Brundage, The Ford Fellows in Educational Journalism Report, 1979, page 90:

     In the 34 years that he presided over Tuskegee. the school grew from two ransackle classrooms to 100 well-equipped buildings, more than 1,500 students.

   • 1984, The Orissa Historical Research Journal:

     In course of time many a such temple are lost to oblivion leaving only the images now kept in the newly built temples or in the ransackle houses.

   • 2002, India. Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Annual Report, page 20:

     The Jenukurubas of Hunsur Taluka, Mysore District Karnataka lived in ransackle shanties.