dross

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“
At last he got up, and looked long and fixedly at the other, as if to read the thoughts passing through his head You are right, brother Simon," he said, after some time, in a deep, low, mournful voice; "it's dross--dross--all dross.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Waste or impure matter: discarded the dross after recycling the wood pulp.
  2. noun The scum that forms on the surface of molten metal as a result of oxidation.
  3. noun Worthless, commonplace, or trivial matter: "He was wide-awake and his mind worked clearly, purged of all dross” (Vladimir Nabokov).

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Examples (50)

  • With a spatula Khalid carefully skimmed off the remaining dross, and there at the bottom of the bowl lay a cooling mass of liquid gold. —  THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT - Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Let those who feel that they could spurn the temptation, in comparison with which every other that besets our miserable nature is as dross--the praise yielded by a polished and fastidious nation to rare and acknowledged genius--denounce as they will the infirmity of Le Sage. —  Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844
  • At last he got up, and looked long and fixedly at the other, as if to read the thoughts passing through his head You are right, brother Simon," he said, after some time, in a deep, low, mournful voice; "it's dross--dross--all dross. —  Captain Mugford Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors
  • The furnace burns up the dross, and let it go! —  The Gold that Glitters The Mistakes of Jenny Lavender
  • Her future?--she held it dross--apart from Oliver. —  The Testing of Diana Mallory
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English dros, from Old English drōs, dregs.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also drosse; from Middle English drosse, earlier dros, from Anglo-Saxon dros = Middle Low German dros = Middle Dutch droes, dregs. The more common Anglo-Saxon word is *drosen (or *drōsen), always in syncopated plural drosna (or *drōsna) (= Middle Dutch droessem, Dutch droesem = Middle Low German druse = Old High German trusana, trusna, drusena, drusina, Middle High German drusene, drusine, drussene, Old High German also truosana, truosena, truosina, truosen, druosana, Middle High German truosen, druosene, German drusen), lees, dregs, from dreósan (past participle droren for *drosen) = Old Saxon driosan = Norwegian drjosa = Gothic (Moesogothic) driusan (Low German drusen, etc.), fall: see drizzle, and cf. droze, drowse.
  2. from dross, n.
 

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/drɑs/
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