scroff

When she came close and looked in she beheld indistinct forms racing up and down to the figure of the dance, the silence of their footfalls rising from their being overshoe in 'scroff' -- that is to say, the powdery residuum from the storage of peat and other products the stirring of which by their turbulent feet created the nebulosity that involved the scene.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles 1891

When she came close and looked in she beheld indistinct forms racing up and down to the figure of the dance, the silence of their footfalls arising from their being overshoe in "scroff" -- that is to say, the powdery residuum from the storage of peat and other products, the stirring of which by their turbulent feet created the nebulosity that involved the scene.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1884

-- 'If you can't get the cork out of the jar, David, bore a hole in the tub of Hollands that's buried under the scroff in the fuel-house; d'ye hear?

The Trumpet-Major Thomas Hardy 1884

They say he can talk French as fast as a maid can eat blackberries; and if so, depend upon it we who have stayed at home shall seem no more than scroff in his eyes. "

The Return of the Native 1878

Sergeant, I was no more to her than a morsel of scroff in the fuel-house! "

Far from the Madding Crowd 1874

Sergeant, I was no more to her than a morsel of scroff in the fuel-house!”

Far from the Madding Crowd 1874