scavenger
/ˈskæv.ən.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/ noun, verb
Forms scavengers scavengering scavengered skavenger
- noun Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things. “garbage scavenger”
- noun An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion. “Vultures are natural scavengers.”
- noun (UK, Ireland, obsolete) A street sweeper.
- noun (UK, Ireland, historical) A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.
- noun (chemistry) A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.
- verb (archaic) To scavenge.
- verb (archaic) To clean the rubbish from a street, etc.
Synonyms
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A person whose employment is to clean the streets of a city, by scraping or sweeping, and carrying off the fifth. The name is also applied to any animal which devours refuse, carrion, or anything injurious to health. Scavenger beetle (Zoöl.), any beetle which feeds on decaying substances, as the carrion beetle.
Etymology [OE. scavager an officer with various duties, orginally attending to scavage, fr. OE. & E. scavage. See Scavage, Show, v.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scavenger”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details