MEANING
1. An animal that feeds on dead animals it did not kill itself.
2. A person who searches through discarded or abandoned material for things that can still be used.
Use it for
describing animals gathering around a carcass; showing remains becoming part of another creature’s survival; distinguishing feeding on carrion from hunting live preyIdentifies an agent feeding on death or recovering discarded resources, rather than naming decay itself. Writing functions: Corpse / Bodily Decay.
Words that belong together
- an animal scavenger
- a scavenger feeds on carrion
- birds and other scavengers
On the page
Scavengers had reached the carcass before the hunters returned.
By morning the remains were hidden beneath a shifting crowd of scavengers.
The scavenger tested each length of wire before adding it to her sack.
Scavengers had taken the fittings, leaving only pale rectangles on the walls.
Word forms
- Base
- scavenger
Usage notes
Countable noun: scavenger, scavengers. The related verb scavenge already exists in MotJuste and is not added again. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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