rummage

rummage
    n 1: a jumble of things to be given away
    2: a thorough search for something (often causing disorder or
       confusion); "he gave the attic a good rummage but couldn't
       find his skis" [syn: {ransacking}, {rummage}]
    v 1: search haphazardly; "We rummaged through the drawers"
    

Rummage \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.]
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            They might bring away a great deal more than they
            do, if they would take pain in the romaging.
                                                  --Hakluyt.
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   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.
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            He . . . searcheth his pockets, and taketh his keys,
            and so rummageth all his closets and trunks.
                                                  --Howell.
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            What schoolboy of us has not rummaged his Greek
            dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account! --M.
                                                  Arnold.
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Rummage \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.]
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   2. A searching carefully by looking into every corner, and by
      turning things over.
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            He has made such a general rummage and reform in the
            office of matrimony.                  --Walpole.
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   {Rummage sale}, a clearance sale of unclaimed goods in a
      public store, or of odds and ends which have accumulated
      in a shop. --Simmonds.
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Rummage \Rum"mage\, v. i.
   To search a place narrowly.
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         I have often rummaged for old books in Little Britain
         and Duck Lane.                           --Swift.
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         [His house] was haunted with a jolly ghost, that . . .
         . . . rummaged like a rat.               --Tennyson.
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65 Moby Thesaurus words for "rummage":
      beat, comb, conglomeration, disarrange, disarray, discompose,
      disorganize, disrupt, disturb, domiciliary visit, dragnet, examine,
      exploration, forage, frisk, hash, hotchpotch, house-search, hunt,
      hunting, jumble, jungle, litter, look all over, look everywhere,
      look through, mash, mess up, miscellanea, miscellany, mishmash,
      mix up, muddle, odds and ends, patchwork, perquisition, poke,
      posse, potpourri, probe, quest, rake, ransack, ransacking, rifle,
      scour, scrabble, scramble, scrounge, search, search high heaven,
      search party, search warrant, search-and-destroy operation,
      searching, shake, shake down, stalk, stalking, still hunt, toss,
      tumble, turn inside out, turn upside down, turning over