scavengery
(ˈskævəndʒərɪ)
[f. scavenger n. + -y.]
The municipal or state arrangements for cleaning and removing dirt, refuse, etc.; the action of collecting and removing dirt from the streets.
| 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Polit. Touchstone 449 Since Tuscany did breed a numerous rascallity of turbulent mad-caps..he had yet farther very great need of those Gallies, which were as the scavengery of his State, by which he kept it cleanly. 1663 Rollock in Marq. Worcester's Exact Def. Water Engine 6 Whole Cities may be kept clean,..needing no other Scavengery than by means thereof [i.e. of the Water Engine] to void their Dirt, and avoid Noisomness. 1715 M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. Pref. 56 The Brutal Scavengry of Cacarello's Modus. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 207/2 By one or other of these modes of scavengery all the public ways of the metropolis are cleansed. |