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Definition of scavenger


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scav·en·ger  audio  (skvn-jr) KEY  

NOUN:
  1. One that scavenges, as a person who searches through refuse for food.
  2. An animal, such as a bird or insect, that feeds on dead or decaying matter.
  3. Chemistry A substance added to a mixture to remove or inactivate impurities.

ETYMOLOGY:
Alteration of Middle English scauager, schavager, official charged with street maintenance, from Anglo-Norman scawager, toll collector, from scawage, a tax on the goods of foreign merchants, from Flemish scauwen, to look at, show


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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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