Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Feeding on decaying organic matter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Feeding on putrid matter; habitually eating decaying substances; specifically, of or pertaining to the Saprophaga.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Feeding on carrion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Feeding on dead or decaying organic matter

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of certain animals) feeding on dead or decaying animal matter

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From sapro- + -phagous.

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Examples

  • The wide range of trophic resources consumed by Geotrupidae dung beetles and the generally accepted saprophagous habits of the Scarabaeoidea ancestors suggest that the consumption of acorns constitutes a faculty that takes advantage of previous morphological adaptations.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Jos? R. Verd? et al. 2010

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