Meaning & use

scavenger

noun·Academic

An animal that feeds on dead or decaying matter, or a person who searches through discarded items for useful things.

See it in a sentence

Vultures are scavengers that clean up carcasses left behind by predators.

The old man was a scavenger who collected scrap metal to sell at the market.

A note on using this word

Scavenger is common in the phrase 'scavenger hunt,' a game in which players search for a list of items.

Words with a similar meaning

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