Meaning

noun a shoulder firearm with a long barrel and a rifled bore

verb steal goods; take as spoils

verb go through in search of something; search through someone's belongings in an unauthorized way

originOriginally short for “rifled gun”, referring to the spiral grooves inside the barrel. From Middle English riflen (“to rob, plunder, search through”), from Old French rifler (“to lightly scratch, scrape off, plunder”), from Old High German riffilōn (compare German riffeln (“to score, make grooves in, ripple”), archaic Dutch rijfelen (“to scrape”), Old English rifelan, riflian (“to wrinkle”)),…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0