Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One that scavenges, as a person who searches through refuse for food.
- n. An animal, such as a bird or insect, that feeds on dead or decaying matter.
- n. Chemistry A substance added to a mixture to remove or inactivate impurities.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An officer whose duty it was to take custom upon the inspection of imported goods, and later also to see that the streets were kept clean. Also scavager.
- n. Hence A person whose employment is to clean the streets, etc., of a city or the like, by scraping or sweeping together and carrying off the filth.
- n. In cotton-spinning, a child employed to collect the loose cotton lying about the floor or machinery.
- n. In entomology, a scavenger-beetle.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete A street sweeper.
- n. Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
- n. An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion.
- n. chemistry A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A person whose employment is to clean the streets of a city, by scraping or sweeping, and carrying off the filth. The name is also applied to any animal which devours refuse, carrion, or anything injurious to health.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any animal that feeds on refuse and other decaying organic matter
- n. a chemical agent that is added to a chemical mixture to counteract the effects of impurities
- n. someone who collects things that have been discarded by others
Etymologies
- From Middle English scavager, from Old French scawageour ("one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector"), from Old French *scawage, *scavage, escavage, escauwage ("scavage"), alteration of escauvinghe (compare also Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Middle English schewing ("inspection, examination"), from Old English scēawung ("reconnoitering, surveying, inspection, examination, scrutiny"), equivalent to showing. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of Middle English scauager, schavager, official charged with street maintenance, from Anglo-Norman scawager, toll collector, from scawage, a tax on the goods of foreign merchants, from Flemish scauwen, to look at, show. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“So these bones all around here, there's leg bones here, there's leg bones up there, were done by wolves, bears, coyotes, what we call the scavenger community.”
“But it used to, the old frames had revolving scavenger rolls — what they call a scavenger roll, most of them called it a lap stick then.”
“DURHAM: But it used to, the old frames had revolving scavenger rolls -- what they call a scavenger roll, most of them called it a lap stick then.”
“Maddy LeMel: Suspended States | LeMel has been called a "scavenger poet," and is known for mixed-media constructions incorporating found objects that are reclaimed and given second lives in pieces created with wire, screen, thread, paper, metal fragments, and a deft articulation of light and space.”
The Huffington Post: Bill Bush: What is Worth Saving? This Artweek.LA (November 14-20, 2011)
“But — and mark you, the leap paralyzes one — crossing the Western Ocean, in New York City, hautboy, or ho-boy, becomes the name by which the night-scavenger is known.”
“From haunted waterslides to a pumpkin scavenger hunt, here are 7 hotels with spooky-themed amenities this Halloween.”
The Huffington Post: Halloween-Themed Hotel Amenities (PHOTOS)
“The bank made contact with your son, Cayle, through what is quite properly known as a scavenger, that is, an agent whose job it is to find young men and women who are in financial difficulties but who have parents with money.”
“Western Ocean, in New York City, hautboy, or ho-boy, becomes the name by which the night-scavenger is known.”
“In the distance, he spots something moving, scavenging through the wreckage. 9 goes to investigate, and discovers that the scavenger is another puppet, the technocratic 2 Martin Landau. 2 helps install a new voicebox in 9, and together they rummage through the debris.”
“LUCAS: The best evidence so far is that it was on a timing device and that because Brian Wells got way laid by the police, the timing device was continuing to run and that because he was stopped, he wasn't able to disarm it or follow the so-called scavenger list in order to be to be able to disable the bomb in the time they had allotted him.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scavenger’.
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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born2badored's Words
livid, fnordy, grok, bloopy, bokonon, disinformation, psychometrics, trip hop, acid jazz, bauble, dynamic, constant and 91 more...
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S
synchronicity, serpent, surreal, snake, Satan, secret, sullen, see, sight, shade, spill, scramble and 41 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Hilary's List
Just a list of words I like
wellspring, mystery, wonderment, intrinsic, artisan, enchantment, magic, transience, incomplete, impermanent, imperfect, resonance and 163 more...
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Without a Paddle (2004)
Words from a 2004 'Without a Paddle' film.
outdo, dip, great call, nagging, TGIF, cobweb, earwax, purty, white-water, christen, teem, carny and 10 more...
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Korniko's Words
quixotic, existential, archaic, black, cheap, laser, jungle, tropical, listed, festive, survey, blind and 87 more...
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brundlefly's Words
shrike, afghan, spelunking, scuttle, boatswain, eschatological, merkin, sassafras, etruscan, doppelganger, trench, cromulent and 43 more...
Tweets
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