▪ I. scavage, n.
(ˈskævɪdʒ)
Also 5 scawage, 6 skawage, skavag(e, 7 scavadge.
[a. AF. scawage, schawage (Rolls of Parlt. an. 1402), = North-Eastern OF. escauwage, f. escauwer to inspect, ad. Flemish scauwen = OE. scéawian show v.
The OE. synonym was scéawung (see showing vbl. n.), the ME. form of which was adopted into AF. as scawenge (1419 in Liber Albus 223). In the 15th c. lawyers were aware of the etymological meaning, and invented the word shewage as an explanatory synonym.]
1. A toll formerly levied by the mayor, sheriff, or corporation of London and other towns on merchant strangers, on goods offered for sale within their precincts. The toll was prohibited by Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 8. Also attrib. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1474 Caxton Chesse iii. vii. (1481) h vij b, And by the purse been signefyed them that receyue the costumes, tolles, scawage, peages and duetees of the cytees and townes. a 1500 Arnolde Chron. (1811) p. xiv, The marchaundyses wherof skauage ought to be taken in London, and how meche. 1502 in I. S. Leadam Star Chamber Cases (1903) 90 He was Skavage gatherer in London, both to the maire and Shreves there. Ibid. 92 There was skavage askyd by oone James skavage gatherer then of oone Skrevener Freman of Excestre for cloth bi him brought to London by water, and he refusid to pay it. a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vii. 338 This yere [1252] the cytezyns [of London] had graunted of y⊇ Kyng, y{supt} no cytezyns shulde paye scauage or tolle for any bestis by them brought, as they before tymes had vsed. 1530–1 Act 22 Hen. VIII, c. 8 §4 The tables so to be sette upp in the Cytie of London touchynge Scavage. 1583 Rates Custom ho. g iij, heading, Scauadge. 1641 W. Hakewill Libertie of Subject 123 There are other duties then Customes and Subsidies due upon the landing of wares; for example Wharfage, Cranage, Scavage and such like. 1676 Molloy De Jure Marit. ii. xiv. (1688) 325 Scavage is an ancient Toll or Custom exacted by Mayors, Sheriffs, &c. of Merchant-Strangers for Wares shewed or offered to sale within their Precincts. 1800 Colquhoun Comm. Thames xi. 332 Of Scavage (i.e. Shewage or Surveying) of certain Goods imported by Foreign Merchants. |
† 2. The fulfilment of the duties of a scavager.
| 1547 in E. B. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 386 Item payd to the skavynger for hys hole yeres skavag,..ij8. |
† 3. Refuse, etc. scavenged from the roads. Obs.
| 1706 in J. E. Cox Ann. St. Helen's Bishopsgate vii. (1876) 127 Mr. Chewter had leave to sink a place for laying in of dung or scavage. |
▪ II. ˈscavage, v. rare.
[Back-formation from scavager.]
trans. = scavenge v. Also intr. for refl. (fig.). Hence ˈscavaging vbl. n.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 222/1 The scavaging work, moreover, was ‘scamped’. Ibid. 252/2 The general depreciation of wages in the scavaging trade. Ibid. 259 The street-orderly system of scavaging the metropolitan thoroughfares. 1852 Meanderings of Mem. I. 56 The brain will scavage and the breast unstuff. |