| 释义 |
▪ I. scavenger, n.|ˈskævəndʒə(r)|
Also 6 skavinger, -ynger, scavengere, 6–8 scavinger, 7 skavenger.
[Altered form of scavager, with intrusive n as in passenger, messenger.]
1. a. = scavager 1. Now only Hist.
1547[see scavage n. 2]. 1598Stow Surv. 328 In Sepulchers parish common Counsaile six, Constables foure, Scauengers foure [etc.]. 1638Tarlton's Jests C 1 b, When Tarlton dwelt in Gracious street..he was chosen Scauenger, and often the Ward complained of his slacknesse, in keeping the streets cleane. 1677R. Thoroton Nottinghamsh. 492 There is an Officer of the Town called the Scavenger, that looks to the Pavement and Streets of the Town, and attends upon the Majors wife. 1695Lond. Gaz. No. 3053/2 An Act for Exempting Apothecaries from Serving the Offices of Constable, Scavenger, and other Parish and Ward-Offices. 1766Entick London IV. 4 The government of this ward is in one alderman,..seven scavengers, and a beadle. 1835App. Munic. Corpor. Rep. i. 172 (Aberystwith), The Scavengers are appointed in the same manner. The persons usually selected for this office are the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, and they employ the paupers in sweeping the streets.
†b. As the title of an official under the East India Company. Obs.
1702MS. list in Yule s.v., John Butt, Scavenger and Cornmeeter, Tevenapatam, Merchant. 1760Fort William Cons. in Long Sel. Rec. Gov. (1869) 245 (Yule) Mr. Handle, applying to the Board to have his allowance of Scavenger increased..we allow him Rs. 20 per month more than before.
2. a. A person whose employment is to clean streets, by scraping or sweeping together and removing dirt. † Also, a person employed to keep clean a church.
1530Palsgr. 266/1 Scavenger that clenseth stretes, bovevr. 1563–83Foxe A. & M. 19/2 And as in the other vnder wardens cometh the order of Scauingers: so neither doth the Popes Monarchy lacke his kaynilrakers. 1598Bp. Hall Sat. vi. ii. 99 To see..a cloked Frere Sweating in the channell like a Scauengere. 1642Laws of War Army Earl Essex 21 The rest [shall] serve for Pioners and Scavengers, till a worthy exployt take off that Blot. 1690C. Nesse Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test. I. 101 The sorry scavengers who live honestly by emptying privies. 1696Act 8 & 9 Will. III, c. 37 §1 To the end the Dirt and Soyl may be heaped ready for the Scavenger to carry away. 1714Mandeville Fab. Bees (1733) I. p. xi, Now would I ask if a good citizen..might not assert that dirty streets are a necessary evil inseparable from the felicity of London,..without any prejudice either to the blackguard or the scavingers. 1725–6in J. L. Chester Westm. Abbey Reg. (1876) 316 John Chittham, Scavenger to this Church: in the South Cloister. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xvi. 136 The scavenger, with his broom..was clearing away a heap of mud. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. iv. xiv, A scavenger's cart happening to stand unattended..Mr. S. found it impossible to resist the temptation of shooting Mr. Silas Wegg into the cart's contents.
b. transf. One who or something which removes dirt or putrid matter. Applied to various animals that feed on decaying matter, esp. the scavenger beetle.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden 1 Chiefe scauinger of chins. 1614Markham Cheap Husb. i. Swine i. 87 The Swine..is the Husbandmans best scauenger,..for his food and liuing is by that which would else rot in the yard. 1648Winyard Midsummer-Moon 4 Thus sinkes and common shoares are the best scavengers. 1719E. Baynard Health (ed. 2) 6 And Fasting's Nature's Scavenger. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. i. (1879) 10 Numerous spiders, which I suppose prey on these small attendants and scavengers of the waterfowl. 1854Owen in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 164 The sturgeons may be called the scavengers of the great rivers which they frequent. 1858Baird Cycl. Nat. Sci. 48/1 The argala..is extremely useful in removing noxious animals, and devouring all sorts of carrion. It is called the scavenger in Calcutta. 1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 307 The Silphidæ (burying or sexton beetles, scavengers, &c.). 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 719 The spider-cells..act as phagocytes or ‘scavengers’, multiplying upon and removing the degenerate nerve-elements.
c. fig. in various uses: One who collects filth; one who does ‘dirty work’; a dishonourable person. Also, in favourable sense, one who labours for the removal of public evils.
1562Pilkington, etc. Burnynge Paules A vij, In like maner where thys scauenger sweping the stretes with his bookes..hais spoken the truth, not trulye..I shal passe ouer it with silence. 1582Stanyhurst æneis Ded. (Arb.) 9 Are there not diuerse skauingers of draftye poetrye in this oure age, that bast theyre papers with smearie larde [etc.]. 1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. ii. ii, The gentleman-citizen hath satisfied me, Ile talk to no scauenger. 1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 265 That Suburbe sinke, as this rude Scavinger calls it,..shall be in my account a more honourable place then his University. 1767A. Campbell Lexiph. (1774) Pref. 30, I am no other than a literary scavenger. 1771Junius Lett. lxvii. (1788) 340 note, In the senate, their abilities have confined them to those humble, sordid services, in which the scavengers of the ministry are usually employed.
3. A child employed in a spinning-mill to collect loose cotton lying about the floor or machinery. Also, a roller used to collect the loose fibres or fluff; also called scavenger-roll.
1833Lytton England & Engl. (ed. 2) I. 201 My children shall never go into a factory, more especially as scavengers and piecers. 1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 289 The masters paid the spinners the full allowance of wages for these piecers and scavengers, as they are called. 1853― Dict. Arts (ed. 4) II. 831 In the mules we notice a peculiar arrangement of ‘scavenger’ is applied. The object of this apparatus is to clear particles of waste from the top of the carriage, and the operation is effected by means of a roller.
4. Chem. A substance or species which scavenges (sense 4 b) free radicals or other species.
1955Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. LXXVII. 3244 The demonstration that various radical scavengers such as butyl mercaptan, α, α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl.., iodine and oxygen do not capture the decomposition products quantitatively. 1961G. R. Choppin Exper. Nuclear Chem. xii. 196 The presence of even small amounts of impurity, especially if it has a high affinity for radicals (a scavenger), causes decomposition. 1970Financial Times 13 Apr. 20/4 Manganese is probably the most important ‘minor’ metal used in the steel industry, being used as a de-oxidiser and scavenger to combine with sulphur. 1974C. C. Patton in P. L. Moore et al. Drilling Practices Manual xv. 397 Scavengers can also be added to a drilling fluid to remove small amounts of hydrogen sulfide. 1978Nature 23 Nov. 347/2 Hydroxyl is the most reactive trace species in the troposphere and is therefore the dominant scavenger of many anthropogenic substances.
5. a. attrib. and Comb., as scavenger duck, scavenger shovel, scavenger work; scavenger-like adj. and adv.; scavenger-cell = phagocyte n.; scavenger hunt orig. U.S., a game in which people try to collect certain miscellaneous objects from the neighbourhood; scavenger-roll (see sense 3); † scavenger-stuff (see quot. 1787).
1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 324 In the lowest layer ‘*scavenger’ cells and nuclei cover the spindle cells.
1884Good Words Nov. 746/2 A band of *scavenger ducks picking up the garbage.
1940Sun (Baltimore) 1 Nov. 7/3 Eight young persons on a *scavenger hunt sponsored by a Westport High School sorority went to the Sixty-third street police station willingly to obtain signatures of policemen. 1963‘E. McBain’ Ten Plus One xi. 136 We're two college kids on a scavenger hunt... We're supposed to bring back a hibernating bear. 1977Times 24 Dec. 10/2 The outdoors scavenger hunt is a good exercise after overeating. 1980Jewish Chron. 18 July 25/5 Sunday, July 27. Car Rally/Scavenger Hunt.
1611Cotgr., Voyer, a Surueyer..of highwayes..who..*Scauinger-like, giues order that they be made cleane. 1890Spectator 28 June, When such scavenger-like work is thus forced upon a man of letters, it is [etc.].
1611Cotgr., Paelle à bourbe, a *Scauingers shouell;..such a one as durt is vsually remoued, or taken vp, with.
1787Winter Syst. Husb. 332 *Scavenger stuff, is a mixture of coal ashes and street dirt.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 312 There is so little *scavenger work required in fine spinning, on account of the small quantity of waste from the long-stapled cotton.
b. In designations of certain animals (see 2 b): scavenger-beetle, a necrophagous beetle, especially one of the family Scaphidiidæ; scavenger-crab, any crab which feeds on dead animal matter; scavenger-vulture (see quot.).
1854A. Adams, etc. Man. Nat. Hist. 182 *Scavenger-Beetles (Scaphidiidæ).
1857A. White Pop. Hist. Brit. Crust. Index, *Scavenger-crab. 189419th Cent. XXXVI. 436 Scavenger crabs line this coast in myriads.
1885W. T. Hornaday 2 Yrs. in Jungle vi. 61 No wonder the builder of such a nest is called the *scavenger vulture [Neophron percnopterus].
▪ II. ˈscavenger, v. rare.
[f. scavenger n.]
1. trans. To remove dirt from, chiefly fig.; also, to make dirty with scavenging.
a1644Quarles New Distemper (1645) 3 All the Romish Rubbish and Trumpery was scavengerd out of this [the new Reformed] Church. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (ed. 3) ii. x, After having scavengered your hands and gloves in slaving to drag up each [shoe out of the quagmire].
2. intr. To work at scavenging.
1843–[implied in scavengering vbl. n.]. 1894Season X. 71/3 Scavengering with bent spine in the gutter. |