scavenge

Related to scavenge: scavenge pump

scavenge (around) for (something)

1. Literally, to search for something by rooting around in rubbish or refuse. There is a large population of impoverished people who spend their days scavenging around for food and useful items in the town dump. I came across a family of raccoons scavenging for food in the dumpster behind our office.
2. By extension, to search all over some are or throughout some cluttered space for a particular thing, especially in a desperate, last-minute manner. I hate having to scavenge for a pen every other day. It's high time I clean up and organize this office! We've been scavenging around for a motor that will work with the prototype, but none of these are compatible.
See also: scavenge
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

scavenge (around) for someone or something

to search everywhere for someone or something. We had to scavenge for a person who would agree to run for president in my place. Sam scavenged around for a socket wrench.
See also: scavenge
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • scavenge (around) for (something)
  • scavenge for
  • root around in (something)
  • Grub Street
  • literally
  • root around in (something) for (something)
  • riddance
  • good riddance
  • good riddance (to bad rubbish)
  • good-bye and good riddance
References in periodicals archive
Pellegrino, chief operations officer of Pellegrino Recycling, which has the recycling contract for Shrewsbury, said he sympathizes with people who feel they have to scavenge other people's trash, but the practice can cause problems.
Since, Dual activity of methanolic extract to inhibit lipid peroxidation and scavenge free radical showed from T arjuna for application to prevent atherosclerosis.
These antioxidants eliminate pro oxidants and scavenge free radicals (Arouma, 1996).
Two natural products Polypodium leucotomos extract (PL) and kojic acid (KA) were tested for their ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species (.OH,.O2-, H2O2, 1O2) in phosphate buffer.
The capability to scavenge the [DPPH.sup.dot] radical was calculated using the following equation:
As shown in a modified Audi A4 Turbo DI, Bosch engineers increased valve overlap to 40[degrees] to scavenge the residual gas from the cylinders.
The animals' keepers offer insightful comments about a Komodo dragon so fearless that the keeper could simply take it for a walk to its new cage rather than ship it in a box, and the tasmanian devil who loves to scavenge, a talent her keepers encourage by dragging the food around her living area and putting it in a different hiding place every time.
Before incorporation into the compound they can scavenge moisture from the air.
Antioxidant activities in the plant extracts is due to the presence of some phenolic acds and flavonoids which mediates as reducing agents, to scavenge reactive oxygen species and chelate trace metals etc., [9].
The package can be stored unfilled for an extended period (without significant loss of scavenging capability) and will scavenge immediately upon filling with a liquid product.
In Europe, for instance, Wolves are known to prey and scavenge on European Bison (Bison bonasus) in the Bialowieza Forest, Poland, where both species have co-existed since the 1920s (Jedrzejewski and others 2002; Selva and others 2003).
CONCLUSIONS: While crocin may be unable to scavenge superoxide, some of the other carotenoids do so quite effectively.
Because birds scavenge dead farm animals, "any NSMD that is used without testing [on birds] is a real cause of concern," Cuthbert says.
However, some compounds did not scavenge DPPH but inhibited lipid peroxidation significantly, suggesting that their inhibitory effect was not due to radical scavenging but to some other mechanism, such as prevention of [Fe.sup.2+] function.
Or did it scavenge dead and rotting animal carcasses?