different between scrounge vs scrunt

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?a?nd?/
• Rhymes: -a?nd?

Verb

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

1. To hunt about, especially for something of nominal value; to scavenge or glean.
   • 1965, Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"

     Now you don't seem so proud about having to be scrounging your next meal.

2. 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

• (obtain from another): blag, cadge (UK), leech, sponge, wheedle

Derived terms

• scrounger

Translations

Noun

scrounge (plural scrounges)

1. Someone who scrounges; a scrounger.

Translations

See also

• scringe
• scrooge
• scrouge
• scrunge

Anagrams

• congrues

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk??nt/

Etymology 1

• Onomatopoetic

Noun

scrunt (plural scrunts)

1. An abrupt, high-pitched sound.
   • 1894, Robert Barr, "Held Up," McClure's Magazine, 1893-1894 Dec-May, p. 309:

     Just as they were in the roughest part of the mountains, there was a wild shriek of the whistle, a sudden scrunt of the air-brakes, and the train, with an abruptness that was just short of an accident, stopped.

   • 1901, David S. Meldrum, "The Conquest of Charlotte," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, v.171, 1902 Jan-Jun, pg. 128:

     But Jess would not budge, and all of a sudden I sees a white flash in the dark, and hears a rattle of harness, and a scrunt in the shafts as Jess shook her head clear of the blow.

   • 2004, George Douglas Brown, The House with the Green Shutters, Kessinger Publishing, ?ISBN, pg. 243:

     They rose, and the scrunt of Janet's chair on the floor, when she pushed it behind her, sent a thrilling shiver through her body, so tense was her mood.

Etymology 2

Noun

scrunt (plural scrunts)

1. A beggar or destitute person.
   • 1938, James Bridie, The Last Trump, publ. Constable, pg. 29:

     It's a fine, ennobling thing, is poverty. It would make me a brutal scrunt, and you a whinging harridan in three years.

   • 1987, David Rabe, Hurlyburly: A Play, publ. Samuel French, Inc., ?ISBN, pg. 112:

     And without my work what am I but an unemployed scrunt on the meat market of the streets?

   • 2005, Ronan O'Donnell, The Doll Tower, ?ISBN, pg. 20:

     Not slum-dweller socialist but high-class fanny socialist. [...] Socialism that drinks wine - a single bottle costs a year's pay to a fuckin scrunt like Uxbridge.

Verb

scrunt (third-person singular simple present scrunts, present participle scrunting, simple past and past participle scrunted)

1. To beg or scrounge.
   • 1976, Alister Hughes, "Love Carefully," The Virgin Islands Daily News, Feb 2, 1976:

     On the other hand in countries where people scrunt to live, the birth rate is high.

   • 1979, Maurice Bishop, Selected Speeches, 1979-1981, Casa de las Américas, pg. 11:

     Four out of every five women are forced to stay at home or scrunt for a meagre existence.

   • 1996, Defining Ourselves: Black Writers in the 90s, publ. P. Lang, 1999, ?ISBN, pg. 69:

     As a woman of color living in the north of Metropole, anything that I did dig up I really had to scrunt for.