Scrummaging

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To search thoroughly for items or information, often by rummaging through a collection or area
2. Engaging in a hasty, chaotic effort to locate or gather necessary things amidst clutter or disorder
3. The act of quickly and energetically sifting through belongings or resources to find what is needed or desired

Etymology: Scrummaging is the present participle and gerund of "scrummage", a word that began as a corruption of "scrimmage". Its ancestor is "skirmish", and the path runs through several spellings: "scrimish" and "scrimmish" were variants of it, and "scrimmage" came from the same family. The meaning of a fight in a loose mêlée slowly thinned out, so that "scrummage" came to mean a rough, shoving struggle or a crowd pushing and jostling for position. The noun and verb carry that sense of pushing through a jumble. Someone scrummaging through a drawer is digging and shoving among tangled contents much as players once fought over a ball. The word is essentially a rough-and-tumble variant of "scrimmage" with an extra touch of noise and clutter.