Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Filth; excrement; in medicine, specifically, a discharge from an old ulcer.
- n. Figuratively, a vile medley; a rabble.
Wiktionary
- n. Efflusium.
- n. Medley, hotchpotch.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A collection or gathering, as of pus, or rubbish, or odds and ends.
- n. A medley; offscourings or rabble.
Examples
“Cotton Mather described them as a "colluvies" of everything but Roman Catholics and real Christians.”
“Utcunque vel undecunque malum hoc originem ducat, non ultra quaeram, ex his primordiis caepit vitiorum colluvies, omnis calamitas, omne miseriarum agmen in Ecclesiam invehitur.”
“It was literally, as Livy says, a "colluvies omnium gentium," which rolled down from the Alps, under his direction, to overwhelm the Romans on their own hearths.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 357, June, 1845
“Looking at the divine inhabitants of the city in that year, we may see in them almost as much a _colluvies nationum_ as in the human population itself.”
The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus
“The Tónkawa were a migratory people and a _colluvies gentium_, whose earliest habitat is unknown.”
“Rome -- the 'colluvies gentium' -- the sink of the nations, with its conceit, its pomposity, its beggary, its profligacy, its superstition, its pretence of preserving the Roman law and rights, while practically it cared for no law nor right at all.”
“Garth, speaking of the mischiefs done by quacks, has these expressions: "Non tamen telis vulnerat ista agyrtarum colluvies, sed theriaca quadam magis perniciosa; non pyrio, sed pulvere nescio quo exotico certat; non globulis plumbeis, sed pilulis aeque lethalibus interficit.”
“Non tamen telis vulnerat ista agyrtarum colluvies, sed theriaca quadam magis perniciosa, non pyrio, sed pulvere nescio quo exotico certat, non globulis plumbeis, sed pilulis aeque lethalibus interficit.”
“As much rhubarb as may induce a daily evacuation, should be given to remove the colluvies of indigested materials from the bowels; which might otherwise increase the distress of the patient by the air it gives out in putrefaction, or by producing a diarrhoea by its acrimony; the putridity of the evacuations are in consequence of the total inability of the digestive powers; and their delay in the intestines, to the inactivity of that canal in respect to its peristaltic motions.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘colluvies’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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Lees
Items of little or no value that are left behind by physical or biological processes other than passing through an alimentary canal. See also Valse's Leftovers and reesetee's Hogwash! for other tak...
lees, dross, dregs, orts, debris, jetsam, flotsam, rubbage, rubbish, trash, refuse, junk and 130 more...
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Into the mix
A medley of mixtures, mostly ones where the constituents are still distinct. I tagged kinds of stew.
mixture, commixture, admixture, intermixture, intermingling, commingling, mingling, marriage, union, integration, syncretion, permutation and 129 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for colluvies.
whichbe Accumulated filth; foul discharge. (from Phrontistery) May 24, 2008