scavenger

noun

scav·​en·​ger ˈska-vən-jər 

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

This striking bird, a relative of the crested caracara, was a scavenger and opportunistic hunter, feeding on seabird eggs, carrion, and small animals. —Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 29 June 2025

But finding small dinosaurs like this is much rarer, partly because they’re overlooked by fossil hunters searching for bigger, more impressive dinosaurs and partly because smaller skeletons are more likely to be ripped apart by predators and scavengers. —Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 25 June 2025

Published in a paper in Frontiers in Nutrition, the theory suggests that early humans turned to fires not only to cook their meat but also to protect it from predators and scavengers, and to preserve it through smoking for longer periods of time. —Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 5 June 2025

And the decline is disproportionately higher for apex scavengers – larger animals that primarily eat carrion, or decaying animal remains. —New Atlas, 22 June 2025

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

Phrases Containing scavenger

• scavenger hunt

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Kids Definition

scavenger

noun

scav·​en·​ger ˈskav-ən-jər 

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."