scrounge

English

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skɹaʊnd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊndʒ

Verb

scrounge (third-person singular simple present scrounges, present participle scrounging, simple past and past participle scrounged)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean.

   scrounge for food

   • 1965, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Like a Rolling Stone”:

     Now you don't seem so proud about having to be scrounging your next meal.

   • 1987 November 8, Ron Hansen, “CHILDREN'S BOOKS; DISCOVERING THE OPPOSITE SEX”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 1995, Verbatim, volume 22, number 3, page 13:

     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.

   • 2000, Rob Taft, Leaders of the City, page 23:

     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.

   • 2009, George MacDonald Fraser, The Complete McAuslan, →ISBN:

     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.

2. (intransitive) To obtain something of moderate or inconsequential value from another.

   As long as he's got someone who'll let him scrounge off them, he'll never settle down and get a full-time job.

Synonyms

• (obtain from another): blag, cadge (UK), leech, sponge, wheedle

Derived terms

• on the scrounge
• scrounge down
• scrounge out
• scrounger
• scrounge up

 

Translations

To hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean

• French: glaner (fr)
• German: abstauben (de), klauben (de), stibitzen (de)
• Italian: battere cassa (it)
• Maori: pītoto
• Russian: собирать (ru) (sobiratʹ)
• Spanish: gorronear (es), bolsear (es), sablear (es), garronear (es)
• Turkish: aşırmak (tr), otlakçılık etmek, yürütmek (tr)

To obtain something of moderate or inconsequential value from another

• Bulgarian: отмъквам (bg) (otmǎkvam), задигам (bg) (zadigam)
• Dutch: bietsen (nl)
• Finnish: pummata (fi)
• French: quémander (fr), profiter (fr)
• German: schnorren (de)
• Italian: scroccare (it)
• Maori: pati, whakapati, pīnono, kaimātai, pītoto
• Russian: выпра́шивать (ru) impf (vyprášivatʹ), выцыга́нивать (ru) impf (vycygánivatʹ)
• Spanish: gorronear (es), cafichear (es), bolsear (es), comer la sopa boba

Noun

scrounge (plural scrounges)

1. Someone who scrounges; a scrounger.

Translations

scrounger — see scrounger

See also

• scringe
• scrooge
• scrouge
• scrunge

Anagrams

• congrues