rooting around
Digging through stuff
Rooting around is searching through a space in a messy, physical way—moving things aside, digging through piles, rummaging without much system: She was rooting around in her purse for her keys.
The image comes from pigs rooting in soil with their snouts.
The search is usually casual rather than urgent, and the space is often cluttered or unfamiliar.
- exploringTraveling to learn firsthand
- searchAct of seeking
- pawingClumsy, grabby touching
- scavengingGathering discarded or dead material
- investigatingSeeking facts systematically
unearthing · rummaging · ferreting · digging · foraging · burrowing · grubbing · curiosity · sifting · delving · snuffling · nosing about · examining · scraping · uncovering · turning over · nosiness · probing
rooting aroundcataloging
Systematic organization into records
filing · indexing · pinpointing · looking up · cross-referencing
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