scavenger

noun

scav·​en·​ger ˈska-vən-jər How to pronounce scavenger (audio)
1
chiefly British : a person employed to remove dirt and refuse from streets
2
: one that scavenges: such 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

Did you know?

You might guess that scavenger is a derivative of scavenge, but the reverse is actually true; scavenger is the older word, first appearing in English in the early 16th century, and the back-formation scavenge came into English in the mid-17th century. Scavenger is an alteration of the earlier scavager, itself from Anglo-French scawageour, meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, scavage was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how scavenger came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items.

Examples of scavenger in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The team also suspects the Asian elephants intentionally prioritized covering the deceased calves’ heads and torsos to protect them from scavengers. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Mar. 2024 Think about the scavenger bird and images of disease and decay soon follow. Gertrude Kitongo, CNN, 22 Feb. 2024 The whale’s eye was still intact, even though the eyes are usually one of the first body parts to get picked apart by scavengers. Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 21 Feb. 2024 Many infected species are scavengers, suggesting that consumption of infected corpses could contribute to transmission; healthy animals may also pick up the virus from the feces of infected ones, researchers say. Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 12 Feb. 2024 But in The Boxtrolls, an unexpected delight from stop-motion animation house Laika, the cardboard box-wearing creatures are actually gentle and inventive scavengers who have been raising an orphan boy called Eggs (Game of Thrones' Isaac Hempstead-Wright) as one of their own. Danny Horn, EW.com, 6 Oct. 2023 It is thought that scavengers, human activity, or fire (presumably from the sacrifice) may be responsible for any missing bones. Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 12 Dec. 2023 For the family of Mr. Gul, the garbage scavenger in Karachi, one lesson from his deportation was the futility of fighting the authorities. Zia Ur-Rehman, New York Times, 23 Nov. 2023 The researchers arbitrarily set a group size of five as necessary for the ancient humans to chase off a solitary giant hyena scavenger. Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scavenger.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

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 scēawian to look at — more at show

First Known Use

1530, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of scavenger was in 1530

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Cite this Entry

“Scavenger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scavenger. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

scavenger

noun
scav·​en·​ger ˈskav-ən-jər How to pronounce scavenger (audio)
1
: someone or something that scavenges
2
: an organism (as a vulture or hyena) that usually feeds on dead or decaying matter
Etymology

from earlier scavager, from early French skawageour "one who collects a tax on goods sold by merchants from another town," from an early French dialect word escauver "to inspect"

Word Origin
In the U.S., scavenger is not the title of a particular occupation, but it is in Great Britain. There it means "street cleaner," which is a use close to the original meaning. In English towns in the Middle Ages, a tax was placed on goods offered for sale by merchants who came from another town for market day. This tax was called a skawage, from an early French dialect word escauwage, meaning "a showing or inspection (of goods)." The skawage gave the local merchants an advantage and discouraged outsiders from selling in the town. In this way it was like our modern-day tariff, or "tax on imports." The official whose duty it was to collect this tax was called the skawager. This word was later spelled scavager and then scavenger. When the towns came to need someone to keep the streets clean, this duty also became the job of the scavenger. The word scavenger is now used in the British Isles for all street cleaners. By the time British colonists started towns in America, the skawage tax was no longer collected, and the word scavenger came to be used here in its more general sense of "someone who collects usable things from what has been discarded."

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