Meaning of ratissage | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A raid (especially violent) carried out by the police or military, originally and chiefly carried out by the French in Algeria. and, prior to that, by the Milice (Vichy Government counter-terror police) in 1943-44.
2. A monetary device whereby national reserves are temporarily given up to a central bank.

Equivalents

Examples

“The army […] subjected suspect Muslim villages to systematic ratissage – literally a ‘raking-over’, a time-honoured word for ‘pacifying’ operations.”

“A second group of security men had appeared from within the museum, and lashed out with their clubs like warriors in a battle scene from a Kurasawa epic. […] ‘It's another ratissage. A special action.’”

CEFR level