rummage

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a thorough search for something, often causing disorder or confusion

   I gave the attic a good rummage but couldn't find my skis.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Rummage was borrowed from French arrumage as a noun for arranging cargo aboard a ship; the French term probably came from Dutch rumen and shares a Germanic root with room. The verb first meant “to stow cargo,” then “to search a ship thoroughly,” and by the early 17th century developed its modern sense of searching untidily or unsystematically.

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).

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