scavenger
an animal or other organism that feeds on dead organic matter.
a person who searches through and collects items from discarded material.
a street cleaner.
Chemistry. a chemical that consumes or renders inactive the impurities in a mixture.
Origin of scavenger
1Words Nearby scavenger
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use scavenger in a sentence
The eggs are disbursed throughout the five boroughs and a citywide scavenger hunt ensues.
Franck de las Mercedes Lost Everything in a Fire…Except His Faberge Egg | Justin Jones | April 8, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFor Fashion Week, Band of Outsiders traded the runway for the road with a social-media scavenger hunt around NYC.
Band of Outsiders Stages Scavenger Hunt for Fall 2013 Collection | Misty White Sidell | February 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTLife is a scavenger hunt run backward as well as forward, a race to comprehend.
At that point, Tyson had become a scavenger spewing bile and pus.
They also brought in a few of the rabbit-sized scavenger animals.
Space Prison | Tom Godwin
He carries a scavenger's bag and a common sailor's cap, and screams until the whole world gathers around him.
The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the first | Count Carlo GozziNo scavenger shark, no carrion crab, ever chambered more grisly secrets in his digestive processes than this big charnel bird.
The Escape of Mr. Trimm | Irvin S. CobbThe scavenger and the ragpicker, being the lowest grade of blousards, do not always rise to the dignity even of a blouse.
This is always the great difficulty skywardness has in dealing with the moral scavenger.
Somehow Good | William de Morgan
British Dictionary definitions for scavenger
/ (ˈskævɪndʒə) /
a person who collects things discarded by others
any animal that feeds on decaying organic matter, esp on refuse
a substance added to a chemical reaction or mixture to counteract the effect of impurities
a person employed to clean the streets
Origin of scavenger
1Derived forms of scavenger
- scavengery, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for scavenger
[ skăv′ən-jər ]
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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Browse