scrounge

/ˈskɹæʊ̯nd͡ʒ/UK/ˈskɹaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/

scrounge verb: to hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean.

Verb

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

(ambitransitive) To hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean.
- scrounge for food
- Now you don't seem so proud about having to be scrounging your next meal.1965, Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”
(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:

blag, cadge, leech, sponge, freeload, mooch

Noun

scrounge (plural scrounges)

Someone who scrounges; a scrounger.
An act of scrounging; a trip taken for the purpose of scrounging.
- "Still, it's not much good sending you two off on a medical supplies scrounge. What about food and general stores? Suit you?"1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 107

scrounge meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

scrounge in Malayalam

beg, borrow, cadge: തെണ്ടുക, ഇരക്കുക, എരക്കുക, കടംവാങ്ങുക, വായ്പവാങ്ങുക, പരാന്നഭോജിയായി ജീവിക്കുക

scrounge in Kannada

ಹೇಳದೆ ಕೇಳದೆ ಎಗರಿಸು, ಪತ್ತೆಯಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಎತ್ತಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗು, ದುಡ್ಡು ಕೊಡದೆ ಬಳಸು, ದುಡ್ಡು ಕೊಡದೆ ಗಿಟ್ಟಿಸು, ಬಿಟ್ಟಿಯಾಗಿ ಪಡೆ

Examples of scrounge in a sentence

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.1995, Verbatim, volume 22, number 3, page 13:
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.2000, Rob Taft, Leaders of the City, page 23:

All 13 example sentences with scrounge

Synonyms of scrounge

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

tap
wheedle

All synonyms of scrounge

Forms of scrounge

Verb
third-person singular present	scrounges
present participle	scrounging
past participle	scrounged
past	scrounged
Noun
plural	scrounges

Past tense of scrounge: scrounged

Origin of scrounge

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.

Words formed from scrounge

Words that rhyme with scrounge

Questions about scrounge

What does scrounge mean?: Scrounge means to hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean.
What is scrounge in Urdu?: Scrounge in Urdu is بھیک مانگنا, چرانا. See Scrounge meaning in Urdu.
How do you use scrounge in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is scrounge?: Scrounge can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce scrounge?: Scrounge is pronounced /ˈskɹaʊ̯nd͡ʒ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of scrounge?: The past tense of scrounge is scrounged.

Words near scrounge in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: scrounge (page history and authors); scrounge (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scrounge (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scrounge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scrounge.ogg.

Cite this entry: “scrounge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scrounge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.