SCAVENGER

scavenger

(noun) any animal that feeds on refuse and other decaying organic matter

magpie, scavenger, pack rat

(noun) someone who collects things that have been discarded by others

scavenger

(noun) a chemical agent that is added to a chemical mixture to counteract the effects of impurities

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

scavenger (plural scavengers)

Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.

An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion.

(UK, obsolete) A street sweeper.

(UK, historical) A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.

(chemistry) A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.

Verb

scavenger (third-person singular simple present scavengers, present participle scavengering, simple past and past participle scavengered)

(archaic) To scavenge.

(archaic) To clean the rubbish from a street, etc.

Source: Wiktionary


Scav"en*ger, n. Etym: [OE. scavager an officer with various duties, orginally attending to scavage, fr. OE. & E. scavage. See Scavage, Show, v.]

Definition: 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.

– Scavanger crab (Zoöl.), any crab which feeds on dead animals, as the spider crab.

– Scavenger's daughter Etym: [corrupt. of Skevington's daughter], an instrument of torture invented by Sir W. Skevington, which so compressed the body as to force the blood to flow from nostrils. and sometimes from the hands and feet. Am. Cyc.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

4 April 2025

GUILLOTINE

(verb) kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; “The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the largest collection of coffee pots belongs to Robert Dahl (Germany) and consists of 27,390 coffee pots as of 2 November 2012, in Rövershagen, Germany.

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