Dictionary

scavengerous en · ADJ

Etymology

From scavenger + -ous.

Meanings

1. scavenging
   • The non-phytophagous minority of the caterpillars exemplifies three somewhat distinct food habits,- entomophagous, homophonous and scavengerous. 1939, Walter Valentine Balduf, The bionomics of entomophagous insects (part 2, page 1)
   • They eat not only some vegetable material in the form of algae, grasses, and some mosses, but also insects, salamanders, fishes, little molluscs, and bits of dead animal flesh which they find on the bottom. They are therefore partly scavengerous in their habits. 1954, Leon Augustus Hausman, Guide to birds and animal life, page 105:

Forms