01 n. A person whose employment is to clean the streets of a city, by scraping or sweeping, and carrying off the filth. The name is also applied …
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1.
A person whose employment is to clean the streets of a city, by scraping or sweeping, and carrying off the filth. The name is also applied to any animal which devours refuse, carrion, or anything injurious to health.
Phrases & compounds
Scavenger beetle —
any beetle which feeds on decaying substances, as the carrion beetle.
Scavenger crab —
any crab which feeds on dead animals, as the spider crab.
Scavenger's daughter —
an instrument of torture invented by Sir W. Skevington, which so compressed the body as to force the blood to flow from the nostrils, and sometimes from the hands and feet.