scavenge

Verb

Verb Forms: scavenged, scavenging, scavenges

• To search for and collect usable items from discarded material.
• clean refuse from
  • "Scavenge a street"
• collect discarded or refused material
  • "She scavenged the garbage cans for food"
• feed on carrion or refuse
  • "hyenas scavenge"
• remove unwanted substances from
• To collect and remove refuse, or to search through refuse, carrion, or abandoned items for useful material.
• To remove unwanted material from something, especially to purify molten metal by removing impurities.
• To expel the exhaust gases from the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, and draw in air for the next cycle.
• To feed on carrion or refuse.

Examples

• The clever player had to SCAVENGE letters from various existing words to form a bingo.
• They had to scavenge the forest for firewood.
• We scavenged a couple of old beer cans for our art project.

Synonyms

clean, salvage, ragpick

Related Words

scavenger, show, showing