scavenger
nounverbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈskæv.ən.d͡ʒə(ɹ)//
Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
noun
- 1
Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
garbage scavenger
A scavenger picked through the rubbish heap.
- 2
An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion.
Vultures are natural scavengers.
- 3
obsoleteA street sweeper.
- 4
historicalA child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.
- 5
A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.
Etymology
Originally from Middle English scavager, from Anglo-Norman scawageour (“one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector”), from Old Northern French *scawage, escauwage (“scavage”), Old French *scavage, escavage, alteration of escauvinghe (compare Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Old Dutch scauwōn (“to inspect, to examinate, to look at”). Usually reinterpreted/re-analysed today as scavenge (which was originally a backformation from this word) + -er. Compare Old English sċēawung (“a showing, spectacle, examination, inspection, toll on exposure of goods”) and Dutch schouwing (“inspection”). More at show. See also messenger and passenger.
verb
- 1
archaicTo scavenge.
- 2
archaicTo clean the rubbish from a street, etc.
Forms
- plural
- scavengers
- past tense
- scavengered
- past participle
- scavengered
- present participle
- scavengering
- third person singular
- scavengers
scavenger · Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
scenario · An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of…scene · The location of an event that attracts attention.scenery · View, natural features, landscape.