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Scavenge vs Rummage - What's the difference?

scavenge | rummage |

In transitive terms the difference between scavenge and rummage

is that scavenge is to expel the exhaust gases from the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, and draw in air for the next cycle while rummage is to search something thoroughly and with disregard for the way in which things were arranged.

In intransitive terms the difference between scavenge and rummage

is that scavenge is to feed on carrion or refuse while rummage is to hastily search for something in a confined space and among many items by carelessly turning things over or pushing things aside.

As a noun rummage is

commotion; disturbance.

scavenge

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • to collect and remove refuse, or to search through refuse, carrion, or abandoned items for useful material
  • to remove unwanted material from something, especially to purify molten metal by removing impurities
  • to expel the exhaust gases from the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, and draw in air for the next cycle
  • to feed on carrion or refuse
  • Derived terms

    * scavenger * scavenge pump

    rummage

    English

    Verb

    (rummag)
  • (nautical) To arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.
  • (nautical) To search a vessel for smuggled goods.
  • To search something thoroughly and with disregard for the way in which things were arranged.
  • * Howell
  • Hesearcheth his pockets, and taketh his keys, and so rummageth all his closets and trunks.
  • * (Matthew Arnold) (1822-1888)
  • What schoolboy of us has not rummaged his Greek dictionary in vain for a satisfactory account!
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Lexington
  • , title= Keeping the mighty honest , passage=British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.}}
  • To hastily search for something in a confined space and among many items by carelessly turning things over or pushing things aside.
  • * , chapter=8
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Philander went into the next room

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Commotion; disturbance.
  • A thorough search, usually resulting in disorder.
  • * Walpole
  • He has such a general rummage and reform in the office of matrimony.
  • An unorganized collection of miscellaneous objects; a jumble.
  • (nautical) A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship; also, the act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage; formerly written romage .
  • Quotations

    ''"And this, I take it,
    ''Is the main motive of our preparations
    ''The source of this our watch, and the chief head
    Of this post-haste and rummage in the land."
    - Horatio, in "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, act 1 scene 1 l 103-106

    See also

    * rummage sale