Adjacent Words

Scavenger definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SCAV'ENGER, n. [L. scabio.]
A person whose employment is to clean the streets of a city, by scraping or sweeping and carrying off the filth.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a chemical agent that is added to a chemical mixture to counteract the effects of impurities
2: someone who collects things that have been discarded by others [syn: magpie, scavenger, pack rat]
3: any animal that feeds on refuse and other decaying organic matter

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: alteration of earlier scavager, from Anglo-French scawageour collector of scavage (duty collected from non-resident street merchants), from skawage scavage, from Middle French dialect (Flanders) escauver to inspect, from Middle Dutch scouwen; akin to Old English sc?awian to look at — more at show Date: 1530 1. chiefly British a person employed to remove dirt and refuse from streets 2. one that scavenges: as a. a garbage collector b. a junk collector c. a chemically active substance acting to make innocuous or remove an undesirable substance 3. an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a person who seeks and collects discarded items. 2 an animal, esp. a beetle, feeding on carrion, refuse, etc. 3 Brit. archaic a person employed to clean the streets etc. Derivatives: scavengery n. Etymology: ME scavager f. AF scawager f. scawage f. ONF escauwer inspect f. Flem. scauwen, rel. to SHOW: for -n- cf. MESSENGER

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Scavenger Scav"en*ger, n. [OE. scavager an officer with various duties, originally attending to scavage, fr. OE. & E. scavage. See Scavage, Show, v.] 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. Scavenger beetle (Zo["o]l.), any beetle which feeds on decaying substances, as the carrion beetle. Scavenger crab (Zo["o]l.), any crab which feeds on dead animals, as the spider crab. Scavenger's daughter [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 the nostrils, and sometimes from the hands and feet. --Am. Cyc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see scavenge

Moby Thesaurus

amphibian, aquatic, biped, canine, cannibal, carnivore, chimney sweep, cleanser, cosmopolite, crossing sweeper, feline, flue cleaner, gnawer, herbivore, insectivore, invertebrate, mammal, mammalian, marsupial, marsupialian, omnivore, primate, quadruped, reptile, rodent, ruminant, street sweeper, sweep, sweeper, ungulate, varmint, vermin, vertebrate, whitewing