ransack
verb (used with object)
to search thoroughly or vigorously through (a house, receptacle, etc.).
have been ransacking
-
present perfect progressiveof ransack.present perfect progressive
Used to describe an action that began in the past, has continued continuously, and is still in progress.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Your cronies, who have been ransacking the place, disrupting the workforce and displaying their ignorance at every turn of how to run a social internet platform, need to be gone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
Feral pigs have been ransacking Bob Rulf's farm in Peru, N.Y., on the banks of Lake Champlain, eating apples and other crops.
From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2012
Dr. Hans Brauchli of Johns Hopkins University is one of many scientists who have been ransacking the earth for germanium, the rare and elusive metal that is made into transistors.
From Time Magazine Archive
Students in Paris and London have been ransacking secondhand stores for old uniforms dating back to the Crimean and FrancoPrussian wars.
From Time Magazine Archive
Knowing that in times past the baron, your father, was in the habit of keeping money in this old secretary, I have been ransacking it from top to bottom.
From Robert Tournay A Romance of the French Revolution by William Sage
