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I am trying to write a short story in English to practice my English. I remember there's a word for "searching for leftovers in a destroyed minimart in a zombie infested world" which in my memory sounds like "scouring for food" or "scourging for food" or something, but looking at google's definition of both words, those don't look like what I'm looking for.

gattsbr
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Chen Li Yong
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  • I guess it depends what "zombie infested world" source you are referring to, it might help. – gattsbr Jul 12 '21 at 13:42
  • dumpster diving, too. :) Probably nothing left there, though. – Lambie Jul 12 '21 at 22:51
  • Not a single word, but "picking the bones of the minimart" implies that the minimart has been thoroughly looted already and the survivors are getting whatever scraps are left. – Charlie Bamford Jul 13 '21 at 22:10

7 Answers7

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The word you are looking for is scavenging

  • To collect by searching through refuse
  • To search through (a place or container) for useful items.
Stormcloud
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  • Isn't there a more precise word? One where the item to be collected is leftovers and the place to be searched is a destroyed minimart in a zombie infested world ? Scavenge applies so broadly, but OP's needs are... very specific... – Z4-tier Jul 13 '21 at 15:24
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    @Z4-tier no, there's no word which is that specific. – Kat Jul 13 '21 at 15:28
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    Related: Forage. This is usually for wider locations, especially outdoors, especially when it's for resources needed for survival. "Foraging around town" would work in a post-apocalyptic world. – ikegami Jul 13 '21 at 16:57
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    @kat - Your comment should be the answer. There is no word that specific, why on earth would there be? And if there were, surely it would be a German word. – Glen Yates Jul 13 '21 at 20:12
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It sounds like you're looking for scrounging

To forage about in an effort to acquire something at no cost

So you could write

scrounging for leftovers in a destroyed minimart in a zombie infested world

cigien
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    Other options are "scavenging" or the ever-popular "looting" – SoronelHaetir Jul 11 '21 at 06:22
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    @SoronelHaetir "looting" implies to me that there is an active claim to the property. So, if the owner is still alive and occupying the minimart or has taken steps to secure it that the character is circumventing, I would say that's looting. But if the store is almost certainly abandoned, it would seem more like scavenging to me. – PC Luddite Jul 11 '21 at 15:59
  • What about pillaging? – plocks Jul 11 '21 at 16:38
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    @plocks Pillaging is like looting - both assume someone actively owns the place and that their stuff is being taken by force. Pillaging implies more of a wartime act where overwhelming force rolls in and straight up robs the place under threat of violence. Looting implies more taking advantage of an opportunity to steal without necessarily being an act of violence - at least against other people. Looting is a crime of opportunism and happens in an environment where the odds of getting caught are low, for whatever reason. – J... Jul 11 '21 at 17:14
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    "Scrounging" means you are trying to get another person to give you something, which isn't the correct idea. The word you want is "scavenging" IMO. – alephzero Jul 11 '21 at 17:22
  • @alephzero consider adding that as a separate answer? I would upvote it - it's less similar than "scrounging" to the words half-remembered by the OP, but more fitting to the context. – Rand al'Thor Jul 11 '21 at 17:33
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    @alephzero That is one meaning of the word, but it's not the only one. "Scrounging" doesn't have to involve another person (the link I provided has examples of that). BTW, I agree with Rand al'Thor; while "scavenging" is probably not the specific word OP is thinking of, it's a good option. In fact, I was rather hoping SoronelHaetir would have added that as an answer, when they first suggested it. If no one adds that as an answer, I'll just go ahead and add it to my own. – cigien Jul 11 '21 at 17:39
  • I may be wrong but I think the difference is moral context. If war refugees take supplies (food, medicine etc.) from abandoned home I would call it scavenging (chances are by the time the owner comes back the goods will be past due date). If solders take gold from the same building it would be looting (which is not endorsed officially). If they are parts of semi-organized effort (living from the land/scratched earth) it would be pillaging. It's the first time I've heard about scrounging and examples doesn't seem to convey the meaning as well as scavenging. – Maja Piechotka Jul 11 '21 at 19:41
  • @MaciejPiechotka: scrounging can roughly mean hunting, as it would in this example. Scrounging can be done individually, in a group, as well as for an individual or a group. Scrounging can be done in flea markets and trash dumps. – jmoreno Jul 11 '21 at 23:55
  • @jmoreno One way or another it's more uncommon word. – Maja Piechotka Jul 12 '21 at 01:47
  • @jmoreno Remember, pillage then burn. – Peter Wone Jul 12 '21 at 06:40
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    scrounging is right. For example: "I might be able to make dinner for you. Let's me scrounge around the sister's kitchen and see what I can find". So, in a zombie-infested world scrounging for food is right; but it can be used in any context where you are not in possession of some things and are trying to find them and not knowing exactly where those things might be. looting, scavenging and pillaging are completely different. – Lambie Jul 12 '21 at 22:48
  • @Lambie - I agree; in my region (south-east UK) at least, scrounge can mean either to beg directly from a person ("can I scrounge a cigarette?") or to hunt around a location ("I'll scrounge up some leftovers from the kitchen"); context is enough to tell the difference, but a plain "scrounge" is usually from a person and "scrounge up" is usually from a location. I would say that "scavenge" is probably more widespread outside the UK at least, but I like "scrounge [up]" as it fits the described circumstances exactly. – Spratty Jul 13 '21 at 11:34
  • @Spratty It means that pretty much everywhere. :) Scavenging makes me think of scavenging animals so it is slightly different. – Lambie Jul 13 '21 at 12:19
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They could also scour a site for supplies, although this is a less-common word than scavenging or scrounging.

Davislor
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    I would add that "scouring a site" usually implies searching every last nook and cranny, which might or might not be appropriate to the scene, while "scavenging" and so forth are more generic and could include quickly grabbing the easy loot while ignoring everything else. – MichaelS Jul 13 '21 at 07:08
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Looting is often used to describe this in everyday usage, for example when people break into shops during a riot. It's often also used in post-apocalyptic fiction for the same thing too.

Graham
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    Looting specifically means to steal. Looting also sounds nothing like what the question is asking for. – gattsbr Jul 12 '21 at 13:23
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    @gattsbr Yes, looting means to steal, and particularly stripping resources during a time of conflict - which is precisely what the OP is saying his character will be doing. If you steal from a damaged minimart during a riot today, you are looting, and you will be called a looter. That's what the word means, and that's how it's used. So it means exactly what you say, and it exactly answers what the question is asking for. In post-apocalyptic fiction, other words may be used instead because it's less clear that you're stealing when the business owners are dead, but it's still a valid option. – Graham Jul 12 '21 at 13:39
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    precisely? "sounds like scouring or scourging" precisely does not sound like "looting". To assume that it is a time of conflict, and to assume the business owners are dead, is pretty much the opposite of precisely. – gattsbr Jul 12 '21 at 13:51
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    @gattsbr: The word is used quite commonly for this exact circumstance in my experience. The character doesn't own the goods, hasn't verified the goods aren't already owned, and is taking advantage of the circumstances rather than doing honest work to obtain the goods. Also, "looting" at this point often takes on the simple meaning of "collecting stuff from dead enemies or the environment" in video games and similar, so it's reasonable characters used to those contexts would use this definition in an apocalypse setting. It doesn't sound like the word OP was thinking of, but it works just fine. – MichaelS Jul 13 '21 at 07:04
  • "looting" carries a negative connotation that I don't think fits with what OP is looking for. Scavenging or scrounging, depending on how desperate the characters are, are much better choices – Kevin Jul 13 '21 at 13:38
  • Looting applies to situations where there is a temporary disruption to the normal order which makes law enforcement difficult, such as a natural disaster, riot, or battle. It's a crime of opportunity. In a world with no police, no government, no laws and no money, looting doesn't really apply. – barbecue Jul 16 '21 at 12:55
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A general term meaning looking for food, without the specifics of a location, would be foraging. Foraging: (of a person or animal) search widely for food or provisions.

Bruce Thompson
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    I would say this applies more to finding food in the wilderness, e.g. wild nuts and berries or other naturally growing plants, less so to finding it in a minimart, though it can still be used in that sense. – Darrel Hoffman Jul 12 '21 at 16:33
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    @DarrelHoffman: While I would typically agree, I think this word is particularly meaningful in an apocalypse setting. After zombies, Skynet, aliens, or whatever fantasy devices suit you have cleared most of the humans from the planet, a minimart is a naturally-occurring wilderness area to the people who come afterwards. By using a word like "foraging", you can give the explicit sense that the survivors have taken to thinking of abandoned buildings as just part of the landscape, contributing to the surreal atmosphere one might want to convey. – MichaelS Jul 13 '21 at 07:12
  • Foraging was my first thought as well. I agree that I wouldn't typically use it for looking for food in a civilized context except in a joking sense ("What are you doing in the kitchen at this hour?" "Foraging!"). But it does seem appropriate in an apocalyptic situation. – fool4jesus Jul 13 '21 at 16:12
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An even less common word is gleaning which means to "collect leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested." In this instance, your protagonist is gleaning the leftovers after the minimart had already been looted at least once.

Ron Jensen
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There are a number of words that you might use, regardless of which one you ran across previously. Each will have different implications.

At the top of our list should probably be "scavenge", which indicates trying to find something of value in a location where what might mostly be found is mostly leftovers. Whichever other words we find, "scavenge" is a good start, one that fits the definition requested. So, using "scavenge" as a starting point, let's take a look at synonyms.

Here are some possibilities:

  • salvage, but this has little or no implication of violence or possible danger
  • scour, implies a thorough examination or working over of a location or place
  • glean, coming from agricultural and/or rural gathering roots, 'going over a location to find remaining resources after there has already been a harvest'
  • fossick, this is Australian slang, possibly from Cornish (England) mining dialectic usage, similar to glean, but from a mining perspective
  • scrounge, generally used when other people are the source, or in control of the resource, as in cadging or wheedling
  • forage, closer to 'harvesting', but of a wild or undomesticated resource

There are some words that are more closely defined by theft (which requires an active and current owner) or violent and forceful acquisition (could be theft, or wartime activity)

  • pilfer
  • loot
  • pillage

You will find a number of other possibilities at the thesaurus previously linked.

Mark G B
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  • +1. I'm pretty sure "scavenge" is the word that OP is looking for, if for no other reason than it is the most used of the related terms in the "post-apocalyptic" genre's lexicon, at least in my experience. – sharur Jul 13 '21 at 23:05
  • @sharur I quite agee with you! However, there are other considerations! One, we might be wrong. And, we have little feedback to tell us so, one way or the other. Next, we are in a "Learners" forum, so my focus was not on a particular word, per se, but how to find a particular word, and/or how to find an appropriate word to express a particular meaning. – Mark G B Jul 14 '21 at 02:04
  • @sharur Also, while the question seemed clear enough, it is entirely possible, given its brevity, that our impression of clarity was mistaken. Thus, it seemed to me to be the best course, not to guess at the word the OP previously found, but to provide a rational source (and alternatives), so that the OP could find appropriate words themselves. – Mark G B Jul 14 '21 at 02:05