![]() “To riffle papers” is another thing altogether. He rifled through a desk and found a security card to the building’s front door.ĭrawers and filing cabinets had been rifled through and left open, but no property was initially noticed to be missing. The intruder rifled drawers and files but nothing appeared to have been taken. Some items of value were taken including computer disks and stamps, others were ignored and the office was rifled. I sat in the black leather chair and carefully rifled through the junk mail, bills, and personal correspondence.Ī peace group in Cleveland reports a break-in of their offices. Sometimes the phrasal “rifle through” is used.Ĭrime writers (and police) often have occasion to use the verb rifle when describing the aftermath of a break-in: Rifle can be used transitively or intransitively to mean, “make a thorough search.” 1400), Langland has the allegorical character Covetousness say, “I rose when they were asleep and rifled their sacks.” The words possibly share an etymology with an ancestor that had such meanings as scratch, scrape, steal, and rob. ![]() I even see it in bestsellers.Īctually, papers may be either rifled (long i) or riffled (short i). Authors will say, “He rifled through the papers in the file.” More often than not, they do not use riffled. One word I so often see misspelled in books is riffle. A reader has a question about the verbs rifle and riffle in relation to papers:
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