scrounger

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈskraʊndʒɚ/ UK /ˈskraʊndʒə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a person who obtains things by begging, borrowing, or cadging

He was a notorious scrounger who never bought his own cigarettes.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person who obtains things... cadgerspongerfreeloadermoocherbeggar parasite

Opposites

donor provider benefactor

Word family

Related forms scroungescrounging

Etymology

Agent noun from 'scrounge' + '-er'; 'scrounge' is early 20th-century military slang, a variant of dialectal 'scrunge' ('to steal'), of obscure origin.

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# scrounger

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈskraʊndʒɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈskraʊndʒə/

## Meanings
1. a person who obtains things by begging, borrowing, or cadging

## Examples
- He was a notorious scrounger who never bought his own cigarettes.

## Synonyms
- cadger
- sponger
- freeloader
- moocher
- beggar
- parasite

## Antonyms
- donor
- provider
- benefactor

## Related Forms
- scrounge
- scrounging

## Etymology
Agent noun from 'scrounge' + '-er'; 'scrounge' is early 20th-century military slang, a variant of dialectal 'scrunge' ('to steal'), of obscure origin.

## AI Etymology
Scrounger is from agent noun from 'scrounge' + '-er'; 'scrounge' is early 20th-century military slang, a variant of dialectal 'scrunge' ('to steal'), of obscure origin. Older glosses in the chain include "scrounge", "-er", "scrunge", and "to steal", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, scrounger is best read as compound and uncertain formation, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a person who obtains things by begging, borrowing, or cadging". related forms include scrounge and scrounging. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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