rummage
UK/ˈɹʌm.ɪd͡ʒ/
rummage verb: to arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.
Verb
rummage (third-person singular simple present rummages, present participle rummaging, simple past and past participle rummaged)
- To arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.
- To search a vessel for smuggled goods.
- After the long voyage, the customs officers rummaged the ship.
- To search something thoroughly and with disregard for the way in which things were arranged.
- She rummaged her purse in search of the keys.
- The burglars rummaged the entire house for cash and jewellery.
- To hastily search for something in a confined space and among many items by carelessly turning things over or pushing things aside; dig through carelessly.
- She rummaged in the drawers trying to find the missing sock.
- Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
Noun
rummage (countable and uncountable, plural rummages)
- A thorough search, usually resulting in disorder.
- Have a rummage through the attic and see if you can find anything worth selling.
- He has made such a general rummage and reform in the office of matrimony.1753 May 24, Horace Walpole, letter to the Hon. H. S. Conway
- Commotion; disturbance.
- A disorganized collection of miscellaneous objects; a jumble.
- A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship.
- The act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage.
- Synonyms:
- romage
Proper noun capitalized: Rummage
Rummage (plural Rummages)
- A surname from German.
rummage meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
rummage in Tamil
- மூலை முடுக்குகளில் தேடு
rummage in Urdu
- افواہ, تلاشی
rummage in Malayalam
- hunt, search, root about
- ചികയുക, ചികഞ്ഞുനോക്കുക, ചിക്കുക, പരണ്ടുക, ചിനക്കുക, തപ്പിത്തിരയുക
rummage in Kannada
- ಹುಡುಕಾಡಿ ತೆಗೆದದ್ದು, ಜಾಲಾಡಿ ತೆಗೆದದ್ದು, ಹರಕುಮುರುಕು ಸಾಮಾನು, ಚೆಲ್ಲಾಪಿಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾ ಹುಡುಕು, ಹುಡುಕುವಾಗ ಅತ್ತಿತ್ತ ಎಸೆದಾಡು, ಹುಡುಕಿ ತೆಗೆ
More languagesFewer languages
- rummage in Gujarati
- ફેંદવું phěndvũ
- rummage in Tagalog
- halughog
- rummage in Thai
- คุ้ย kúi, ค้น kón, รื้อ rʉ́ʉ
Examples of rummage in a sentence
- 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...
- 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.2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
Synonyms of rummage
Forms of rummage
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | rummages |
| present participle | rummaging |
| past participle | rummaged |
| past | rummaged |
| Noun | |
| plural | rummages |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Rummages |
Origin of rummage
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).
Americanized spelling of German Rometsch.
Words formed from rummage
Phrases with rummage
Words that rhyme with rummage
Questions about rummage
- What does rummage mean?
- Rummage means to arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.
- What is rummage in Tamil?
- Rummage in Tamil is மூலை முடுக்குகளில் தேடு. See Rummage meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use rummage in a sentence?
- He[…]searcheth his pockets, and taketh his keys, and so rummageth all his closets and trunks.
- What part of speech is rummage?
- Rummage can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce rummage?
- Rummage is pronounced /ˈɹʌm.ɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of rummage?
- The past tense of rummage is rummaged.
Words near rummage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rummage (page history and authors); Rummage (page history and authors); rummage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rummage (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rummage (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); rummage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-rummage.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rummage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rummage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.