How to Use scrounge in a Sentence

scrounge

verb
  • We scrounged around for firewood.
  • I managed to scrounge enough money for a bus ticket.
  • We managed to scrounge some firewood.
  • He's always scrounging off his friends instead of paying for things himself.
  • Adel dropped out of school to scrounge for plastic along with his brothers.
    — Heidi Levine, National Geographic, 7 Aug. 2019
  • He was wrapped in a jute sack, and someone else scrounged up some clean straw bedding.
    — Literary Hub, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Where the snow did stick, adults and children alike scrounged up enough to make snowmen.
    — Bob Warren, NOLA.com, 8 Dec. 2017
  • The family would scrounge up the 50 cents a week for the lessons.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 5 May 2021
  • Some are just scrounged out closets and out of parents' desk drawers.
    — Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024
  • The young and the poor used to have to pinch their pennies for years to scrounge up enough money to invest.
    — Jason Zweig, WSJ, 3 Feb. 2017
  • Everyone else is scrounging for the scraps.
    — HubSpot, 1 June 2026
  • My days were spent trying to scrounge enough to eat, to help care for my siblings, to serve the kingdom.
    — Anna Lebaron, Good Housekeeping, 1 Mar. 2017
  • Taxes may increase as Democrats scrounge for cash to pay for pensions.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Flights to nowhere are a desperate attempt by airlines to scrounge up sales.
    — Grady McGregor, Fortune, 11 Oct. 2020
  • So if there isn't an uptick in funds can these candidates continue to scrounge by?
    — Caitlin Conant, CBS News, 29 Sep. 2019
  • Jane borrowed from friends and scrounged to hire a lawyer in Connecticut.
    — Alina Selyukh, NPR, 25 Mar. 2026
  • That’s the only section that is open, a move intended to scrounge up sales.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Nov. 2020
  • People were scrounging for clothes and hanging them out to dry to have something to wear.
    — Rosa Flores, CNN, 9 Sep. 2019
  • Some retailers began pulling out all the stops just to scrounge up some pennies.
    — CBS News, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Goodchild grew up in a tar-paper shack, sleeping on a mattress scrounged from a dump.
    — Amanda Coletta, Washington Post, 18 Jan. 2024
  • In the case of contracts that have already been signed, schools will have to scrounge up the money somehow.
    — Ben Nuckols, chicagotribune.com, 13 Dec. 2017
  • The organizers take pity on us and pull an extra table over and scrounge up two chairs.
    — Annemarie Conte, Woman's Day, 26 Oct. 2018
  • The developer is now scrambling to find a way to scrounge up enough cash to make its debt payments.
    — Bynicholas Gordon, Fortune, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Hendrickson scrounged up a Bible and the new president swore on it.
    — Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 6 Feb. 2024
  • Isla is pregnant, and Jamie scrounges out a living as a scavenger.
    — ArsTechnica, 17 Apr. 2025
  • About two dozen scrounged through supplies in the cafeteria looking for food in the morning.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 21 Nov. 2019
  • First, scrounge up some pennies from your wallet and coin jar—the dirtier, the better!
    — Nicole Harris, Parents, 22 May 2024
  • Thus, school districts across the Golden State are scrounging to keep the lights on.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 14 Jan. 2019
  • If the Jets can scrounge any additional assets out of this pick, that wouldn’t be the worst thing.
    — Zack Rosenblatt, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The large, constricting black pine snake prefers to lounge in open pinelands and scrounge around for a meal of mice, rats, squirrels, birds or eggs.
    — Beau Evans, NOLA.com, 12 June 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scrounge.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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