scavenge
Americanverb (used with object)
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to take or gather (something usable) from discarded material.
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to cleanse of filth, as a street.
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to expel burnt gases from (the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine).
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Metallurgy. to purify (molten metal) by introducing a substance that will combine chemically with impurities.
verb (used without object)
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to act as a scavenger.
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(of an engine or cylinder) to become scavenged of burnt gases.
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to search, especially for food.
verb
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to search for (anything usable) among discarded material
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(tr) to purify (a molten metal) by bubbling a suitable gas through it. The gas may be inert or may react with the impurities
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to clean up filth from (streets, etc)
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chem to act as a scavenger for (atoms, molecules, ions, radicals, etc)
Other Word Forms
- unscavenged adjective
Etymology
Origin of scavenge
First recorded in 1635–45; back formation from scavenger
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As he’d scavenged, Clare had reverted to walking on all fours, for at certain times, it made sense to keep his nose close to the ground.
From Literature
The first dogs were descendants of grey wolves that lingered around human camps at the end of the Ice Age, scavenging leftovers and slowly becoming tamer.
From BBC
And anyway, luckily for us, back home in Canada he was used to finding food in the wild, scavenging for it, fishing for it, hunting for it.
From Literature
When I turn back around Theo is helpfully holding up a pair of my bloomers, scavenged from the swamp of my floor, indicating that I should wipe my mouth.
From Literature
The study's findings suggest the birds are doing more than just tracking the hunters: they're using navigation and spatial memory techniques to scavenge with sophistication.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
