scavenger

Meaning

Noun

1. Someone who scavenges, especially one who searches through rubbish for food or useful things.
2. An animal that feeds on decaying matter such as carrion.
3. (Ireland, UK, obsolete) A street sweeper.
4. (Ireland, UK, historical) A child employed to pick up loose cotton from the floor in a cotton mill.
5. A substance used to remove impurities from the air or from a solution.

Verb

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

Synonyms

sweeper

cleaner

pack rat

necrophage

magpie

forager

freeloader

garbage collector

garbage man

predator

street sweeper

sweep

washer

junk dealer

refuse collector

depurant

street-sweeper

streetcleaner

latrine-cleaner

purifying agent

buildings

scavenging machine

cleanser

clearer

collector

dustman

Translations

Aasfresser

nécrophage

charognard

carroñero

straatveger

saprofago

Spülmittel

Straßenkehrer

aasvretend

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈskæv.ən.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: scavager

Cognate with Old English: sċēawung

Cognate with Dutch: schouwing

In summary

Originally from Middle English scavager, from Anglo-Norman scawageour (“one who had to do with scavage, inspector, tax collector”), from Old Northern French *scawage, escauwage (“scavage”), Old French *scavage, escavage, alteration of escauvinghe (compare Medieval Latin scewinga, sceawinga), from Old Dutch scauwōn (“to inspect, to examinate, to look at”). Usually reinterpreted/re-analysed today as scavenge (which was originally a backformation from this word) + -er. Compare Old English sċēawung (“a showing, spectacle, examination, inspection, toll on exposure of goods”) and Dutch schouwing (“inspection”). More at show.