scrounge around

scrounge around (for someone or something)

To search all around trying to locate someone or something suited to one's purpose. Stranded in the mountains until a search team came for us, we were forced to scrounge around for anything we could eat. Due to new immigration restrictions, the hotel industry along the east coast has been scrounging around for enough workers to handle their busy season. Our magazine scrounges around for the very best deals on state-of-the-art electronics and appliances.
See also: around, scrounge, someone
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

scrounge around (for someone or something)

Fig. to look around all over for someone or something. I scrounged around for Jamie, but she was nowhere to be found. I will try to scrounge around for a replacement part that will do the job.
See also: around, scrounge
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

scrounge around

Forage about in an effort to obtain something at no cost, as in We scrounged around their kitchen looking for a snack. It derives from the dialectal scrunge, "steal." [Colloquial; c. 1900]
See also: around, scrounge
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • scrounge (around )
  • scrounge (around for someone or something)
  • scrounge around (for someone or something)
  • go out in search of
  • go out in search of (someone or something)
  • in search of
  • in search of (someone or something)
  • quod Google
  • Google
  • google, to
References in periodicals archive
An interesting insight into this is that those last four slots have often been decided by relatively razor-thin margins, again acting as an incentive for winning by hook or by crook-a case of pure political selfishness that set aside both the reality of the Senate being a continuing body (12 is not enough to elect a new leadership), and imposed a burden on the electorate and parties to scrounge around for 12-person slates when eight is the number that has been proven to work.
The government, through the Ministry of Sports and Heritage, will have to scrounge around their coffers to raise S million for the remaining month and December.
Then it was up to the market hall to see the clock strike, then a scrounge around Peacocks, then through the arcade to Greys and then up to pets' corner in Lewis's, all without the fear of being mugged.
For food, one has to literally scrounge around for bananas and coconuts.
Why don't you scrounge around your pantry or fridge?
Employer: Will the judge give me time to scrounge around for more money?
He looked like a man who was doing a fiendish grin as he was taking aim with his rifle.) Just after stand-to on the morning of the 26th I decided to have a scrounge around the trench of the battalion on our right: they were the Highland Light Infantry, a service battalion of one of the new divisions that had just arrived in France.
Scrounge around for holiday gift wrappers, and cards you have in stock before buying any.
We note that there are an abundance of squirrels and pigeons that live near the Court -- no doubt the Justices will enjoy taking their front-loader muskets out there when they scrounge around for lunch.
Mercifully, you do not have to scrounge around the malls for the ritzy luxury brands.
One of the most popular restaurants to scrounge around at the Global Village is the Reem Al Bawadi cafe.
In India, given the deep divide between those who are flaunting their wealth and those who scrounge around to make a living, it is sociological and at one level psychological.
So we scrounge around like abused spouses clinging to anything that tells us they're for us, that their critics don't understand.
They didn't give me any food; I had to go scrounge around in the street to get my own.
"I have had some trouble with my suppliers and have had to scrounge around for materials."