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   scavenger

   /ˈskav(ɪ)n(d)ʒə/

   noun

   • 1. an animal that feeds on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse: "carcasses are usually quickly disposed of by scavengers"
   • 2. a person who searches for and collects discarded items: "a reputation as a scavenger of discarded odds and ends"
   • 3. a person employed to clean the streets. archaic
   • 4. a substance that reacts with and removes particular molecules, groups, etc.: "4-aminosalicylic acid is not an effective free radical scavenger"

   Word Origin mid 16th century: alteration of earlier scavager, from Anglo-Norman French scawager, from Old Northern French escauwer ‘inspect’, from Flemish scauwen ‘to show’. The term originally denoted an officer who collected scavage, a toll on foreign merchants' goods offered for sale in a town, later a person who kept the streets clean.

   Derivatives

   • 1. scavengery noun

   Scrabble Points: 15

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   • N

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