scavenger
Meanings
Plural: scavengers
Noun
- a chemical agent that is added to a chemical mixture to counteract the effects of impurities
- someone who collects things that have been discarded by others
- any animal that feeds on refuse and other decaying organic matter
- Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
- An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion.
- A street sweeper.
- A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.
- A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.
Verb
- To scavenge.
- To clean the rubbish from a street, etc.
Origin / 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.
Synonyms
magpie, pack rat
Scrabble Score: 15
scavenger is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordscavenger is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
scavenger is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary