What's the difference between loot and ransack?

Loot


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of plundering.
  • (n.) Plunder; booty; especially, the boot taken in a conquered or sacked city.
  • (v. t. & i.) To plunder; to carry off as plunder or a prize lawfully obtained by war.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Alfred Liyolo, 71, one of Congo’s leading sculptors , sold several bronzes to the palace in Gbadolite and designed a church and tomb for Mobutu’s first wife; all were lost or destroyed in the looting.
  • (2) There were numerous reports of looting and tampering with evidence, although rebel authorities angrily denied them.
  • (3) Photograph: Polish Government Despite his clear-eyed approach to the looted artworks, Wächter maintains that his father was an unwilling cog in the Nazi killing machine, a position that has won him many critics.
  • (4) This might be because they have not been paid and are motivated by a desire to loot, as well as to settle old and new scores with the opposing force.
  • (5) We want the painting back, with the admission that it was looted art,” he said.
  • (6) Ursula Nevin, 24, of Stretford, slept through the riots, but was jailed for five months after admitting handling stolen goods looted by her lodger.
  • (7) The primary need of the people is not western-style educational patronage, but an end to the arms trade and multinational looting of resources.
  • (8) Neither do we accept the owner could not have known it was looted.
  • (9) They just hear bullets and are on the loose running anywhere, looting, raping and doing anything.
  • (10) 'A n excessive sense of entitlement" was what the mayor of London ascribed to those looting their way across our sceptred isle – but he could have been referring to himself.
  • (11) They were looting, not shoplifting, and challenging the police for control of the streets, not stealing [policemen’s] hubcaps.
  • (12) And while large stores were targeted, some smaller shops had not escaped the looting.
  • (13) Parts of the town have been burnt, our facilities were completely looted, but people are coming back and are not afraid any more.
  • (14) Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch, who is in Tripoli, said anti-tank missiles were among weapons looted by Libyans before anti-Gaddafi militias overran western towns.
  • (15) On Wednesday the town of Mubi, home to Adamawa State University, was overrun by Boko Haram insurgents and Nigerian soldiers fled, leaving its barracks to be looted of weapons.
  • (16) Photograph: Dr Oetker “This is an outstanding example of a private company doing the right thing with regards to Nazi-looted art and sets a standard of best practice in this field,” he said.
  • (17) Belgium was arguably the cruellest of all colonisers, the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko looted the nation's wealth for 32 years, then a civil war sparked by genocide in neighbouring Rwanda left more than 4 million people dead and brought about the biggest peacekeeping operation in UN history.
  • (18) The judge said – in a written ruling – that the Sony distribution warehouse had been destroyed and looted shortly before midnight on 8 August 2011 during "the widespread civil disorder and rioting which took place in London and elsewhere" after a man was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, north London.
  • (19) The looted art trove may help to shed light on one of the more obscure chapters in Nazi Germany's history.
  • (20) Saunders also attacked a branch of Tesco with a shovel and handed out looted property to other rioters.

Ransack


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To search thoroughly; to search every place or part of; as, to ransack a house.
  • (v. t.) To plunder; to pillage completely.
  • (v. t.) To violate; to ravish; to defiour.
  • (v. i.) To make a thorough search.
  • (n.) The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Some have been threatened and assaulted, while others’ homes have been ransacked, their families living in constant fear.
  • (2) Gangs of armed men ransacked and burned homes of government supporters and residents from tribes sympathetic to the government.
  • (3) The attackers entered the buildings, ransacked each and set them on fire, but did not penetrate the safe rooms.
  • (4) They’ve just ransacked the house, it’s horrible, it’s terrible,” said Melissa Mill.
  • (5) While his political allegiances led to the ransacking of his office in 1965, following the coup d'etat the year before that brought the military to power under General Castelo Branco, Niemeyer remained a well known and popular figure among ordinary Brazilians, to whom he was always "Oscar", and evidently adored, although younger generations of Brazilian architects have inevitably felt hidden in his shadow.
  • (6) These were forerunners of today's "conscious hip-hop" (not for nothing is Gamble and Huff's catalogue among the most ransacked by rappers for samples).
  • (7) That all I could hear – BANG – and I thought, for fuck’s sake, I had a headache, Tel.” One of the men then clambered through the tiny hole to jemmy open 73 of the 550 safe deposit boxes, which they ransacked.
  • (8) He systematically ransacked Aboriginal burial grounds across at least two states.
  • (9) Earlier in the evening, a number of demonstrators attacked a branch of Starbucks, smashing its front windows and ransacking it before shattering the facade of a clothes shop.
  • (10) A Hague meeting with either Rouhani or Zarif could clear the way to restoring full diplomatic ties, which have not existed since the British embassy in Tehran was ransacked by a mob in November 2011.
  • (11) Residents of Kurhama village in eastern Kashmir said soldiers arrived trucks and entered dozens of homes, beat men and women, ransacked property and broke into shops.
  • (12) It attacked as “false” reports that offices in city hall had been ransacked by police as part of their search for documents.
  • (13) "Now that all the Muslim shops have been looted, ransacked and destroyed, prices have increased substantially."
  • (14) Hospitals were looted and non-governmental organisation offices ransacked as the insurgents declared Gao the capital of Azawad, or northern Mali .
  • (15) This would include delivery in schools and colleges, of course, but should embrace provision provided, for example, through study circles, which were organised by the TUC in the 1980s; the University of the Third Age and the opportunities that organisation has provided for retired people; and opportunities that have been provided for older people who have no qualifications to gain them through organisations like the Ransackers Association .
  • (16) The gang ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit after using a diamond-tipped drill to bore a hole into the vault wall over Easter weekend last year.
  • (17) A BBC correspondent in the city, Rana Jawad, tweeted: "In past 48 hrs many – if not majority – of apartments of Hay el Zohour compound on airport road have been ransacked acc to witnesses."
  • (18) The same article was successfully relied on by lawyers acting for Earl Daren Rodney, who was jailed for ransacking a hairdresser’s during the 2011 London riots.
  • (19) Four suspects wearing helmets and black clothing ransacked display cases inside the Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel shortly after midnight and fled on two high-powered motorbikes.
  • (20) "They will ransack the village, but will probably be stopped at the city gates.

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