I'd guess that it is a typo and it is meant to be "rifling" in the sense of rifle, to search or to rob and as used in Eliot's "Macavity: The Mystery Cat":
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
--
John.
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[d/l] |
I think it was originally "rifling through the library" but was shortened. And i fixed the spelling mistake. The word has only one 'f'.
---
$world=~s/war/peace/g
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The word has only one 'f'.
Well, that's a different word. I would expect "riffling" is the one wanted here. Like thumbing through a book for instance? Rifling, on the other hand, suggests the owner of the things being rifled through probably doesn't (or wouldn't) approve.
P.S. If "riffle" is what is meant, the word "through" should be re-inserted.
-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";
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Using the Wordnet dictionary I encountered the following definitions:
The verb riffle has 4 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (1) flick, ruffle, riffle -- (twitch or flutter; "the paper flicked")
2. flick, flip, thumb, riffle, leaf, riff -- (look through a book or other written material; "He thumbed through the report"; "She leafed through the volume")
3. ripple, ruffle, riffle, cockle, undulate -- (stir up (water) so as to form ripples)
4. riffle -- (shuffle (playing cards) by separating the deck into two parts and riffling with the thumbs so the cards intermix)
It seems that "riffling" is a bit less sinister than rifling through the Monastery - it implies going through pages, etc. (or cards, as in #4 above)
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Wow For a while there, I thought I was crazy when seeing this!
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