scavenger

[ skav-in-jer ]

noun

1. an animal or other organism that feeds on dead organic matter.
2. a person who searches through and collects items from discarded material.
3. a street cleaner.
4. Chemistry. a chemical that consumes or renders inactive the impurities in a mixture.

scavenger

/ ˈskævɪndʒə /

noun

1. a person who collects things discarded by others
2. any animal that feeds on decaying organic matter, esp on refuse
3. a substance added to a chemical reaction or mixture to counteract the effect of impurities
4. a person employed to clean the streets

scavenger

/ skăv′ən-jər /

1. An animal that feeds on dead organisms, especially a carnivorous animal that eats dead animals rather than or in addition to hunting live prey. Vultures, hyenas, and wolves are scavengers.

Derived Forms

• ˈscavengery, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of scavenger¹

1520–30; earlier scavager < Anglo-French scawageour, equivalent to ( e ) scawage inspection ( escaw ( er ) to inspect < Middle Dutch schauwen to look at (cognate with show ) + -age -age ) + -eour -or ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of scavenger¹

C16: from Anglo-Norman scawager, from Old Norman French escauwage examination, from escauwer to scrutinize, of Germanic origin; related to Flemish scauwen

Example Sentences

In Virginia Beach, one arts-and-culture hub put on a scavenger hunt to draw people to the shopping corridor.

From Washington Post

The series turns New York City into a holiday scavenger hunt.

From Vox

Because the scavengers kept on getting arrested, they became known as jail boys.

From Ozy

This year, she is turning her party virtual with Zoom bingo, magicians in breakout rooms, scavenger hunts and craft projects that she has mailed out to neighborhood kids in advance.

From Washington Post

Ashley Nguyen, who lives in Arlington with her 6- and 9-year-old daughters, is organizing a small scavenger hunt with a handful of neighborhood families.

From Washington Post

The eggs are disbursed throughout the five boroughs and a citywide scavenger hunt ensues.

From The Daily Beast

For Fashion Week, Band of Outsiders traded the runway for the road with a social-media scavenger hunt around NYC.

From The Daily Beast

Life is a scavenger hunt run backward as well as forward, a race to comprehend.

From The Daily Beast

At that point, Tyson had become a scavenger spewing bile and pus.

From The Daily Beast

They also brought in a few of the rabbit-sized scavenger animals.

From Project Gutenberg

He carries a scavenger's bag and a common sailor's cap, and screams until the whole world gathers around him.

From Project Gutenberg

No scavenger shark, no carrion crab, ever chambered more grisly secrets in his digestive processes than this big charnel bird.

From Project Gutenberg

The scavenger and the ragpicker, being the lowest grade of blousards, do not always rise to the dignity even of a blouse.

From Project Gutenberg

This is always the great difficulty skywardness has in dealing with the moral scavenger.

From Project Gutenberg