dross

[ draws, dros ]

noun

1. waste matter; refuse.
2. Metallurgy. a waste product taken off molten metal during smelting, essentially metallic in character.
3. British. coal of little value.

dross

/ drɒs /

noun

1. the scum formed, usually by oxidation, on the surfaces of molten metals
2. worthless matter; waste

Derived Forms

• ˈdrossy, adjective
• ˈdrossiness, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of dross¹

before 1050; Middle English dros ( se ), Old English drōs; cognate with Middle Dutch droes dregs; compare Middle English drōsen, Old English drōsna; cognate with Middle High German truosen husks

Word History and Origins

Origin of dross¹

Old English drōs dregs; related to Old High German truosana

Example Sentences

As I’ve written before, the concentration of wealth in America has reached levels that make the gilt of the 19th century Gilded Age look like dross.

From Los Angeles Times

West Indies moved ahead, Root was asked to bowl some off-spin dross into the pads of Da Silva, who swept three fours and hit a six over long-on.

From BBC

But what is remarkable about the Biden era is the degree to which critics on the left, right, and center basically agreed with one another beneath all the ideological dross.

From Slate

Hinton R. Helper, a visitor from North Carolina who would eventually gain notoriety as a white supremacist, reported in 1855 on the city’s “rottenness and its corruption, its squalor and its misery, its crime and its shame, its gold and its dross.... Degradation, profligacy and vice confront us at every step.”

From Los Angeles Times

But to appreciate the treasure it becomes, you have to understand the dross from which it came.

From Los Angeles Times