scrounge
/ˈskɹaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.30 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean.
noun
An act of scrounging; a trip taken for the purpose of scrounging.
Example Sentences
- "scrounge for food"
- "Now you don't seem so proud about having to be scrounging your next meal."
- "Laura snatches coins from inside a truck to make a telephone call, scrounges shoes and clothes for them at a municipal beach, schemes to get a room key so she and Howie can sleep overnight in the Starlight Motel, steals a Jeepster from a deputy sheriff who's trying to arrest them."
- "For example, the PC may have been caught slipping unobtrusively into a restaurant or pub on his ground to scrounge […] a drink or a meal."
- "The booty bandits, who craved sex with the weaker inmates, and the merchants, rich with scrounged or stolen items who kept safe through an uncanny craft to barter anything, followed."
- "When I was a young soldier, and had not yet acquired the tobacco vice (which began with scrounging cigarettes at routemarch halts when everyone else lit up and I felt left out) I used to win cross-country races."
Etymology
1915, alteration of dialectal scrunge ("to search stealthily, rummage, pilfer") (1909), of uncertain origin, perhaps from dialectal scringe ("to pry about"); or perhaps related to scrouge, scrooge ("push, jostle") (1755, also Cockney slang for "a crowd"), probably suggestive of screw, squeeze. Popularized by the military in World War I.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈskɹaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/
- British English: /ˈskɹaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/