Definitions

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

  • noun The act of taking off scum.
  • noun That which is scummed off; skimmings; scum; -- used chiefly in the plural.

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

  • noun printing The accumulation of sticky ink on a plate.
  • noun That which is scummed off; skimmings; scum.
  • noun video games, derogatory The strategy of collecting easy rewards in unchallenging areas, e.g. when a high-level character visits levels suitable for low-level characters in roguelike games.
  • noun video games, derogatory The act of restoring a game's save file for the purpose of continuing play with a better outcome than was obtained the first time.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From scum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably from skimming, modified by the derogatory sense of scum.

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Examples

  • This question of "scumming" is very important to the maker of high-class facing and moulded bricks, and where a clay containing calcium sulphate must be used, a certain percentage of barium carbonate is nowadays added to the wet clay.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various

  • You lobbyist love scumming individuals who rob the poor to make yourselves rich off our hard working backs of Americans.

    Two health care bill liberal holdouts to say 'yes' 2009

  • But that's what Simmons and her contemporaries did, scumming away to ensure clean sugar even when the cone it came from was made from the dregs of a hogshead.

    Andrew Beahrs: Birth of an American Cookie Andrew Beahrs 2010

  • It was a cookie you can imagine enjoying after a long day of casting tankards or dipping candles or scumming sugar.

    Andrew Beahrs: Birth of an American Cookie Andrew Beahrs 2010

  • But that's what Simmons and her contemporaries did, scumming away to ensure clean sugar even when the cone it came from was made from the dregs of a hogshead.

    Andrew Beahrs: Birth of an American Cookie Andrew Beahrs 2010

  • It was a cookie you can imagine enjoying after a long day of casting tankards or dipping candles or scumming sugar.

    Andrew Beahrs: Birth of an American Cookie Andrew Beahrs 2010

  • Anybody seen that male escort/reporter scumming around?

    Think Progress » Breaking: 2006

  • It's not a very admirable way - I hate scumming off my friends.

    11th June '06 2006

  • A green glow, shimmering and shining, reached up from the floor of the audience hall and stained the white marble rail and balustrades to the unpleasant green of algae scumming on a still pond.

    Dalamar the Dark Berberick, Nancy Varian 2000

  • Due to their superior hygiene, they are recommended for use in the fermentation of night soil and for cases involving pronounced scumming, e.g. due to rapid evaporation, since the gasholder cannot get stuck in the scum.

    5. Biogas technique 1989

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