Other Word Forms
- drossiness noun
- undrossy adjective
Etymology
Origin of drossy
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; dross, -y 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Thus was the roofe adorn'd: but for the bed, The which those sacred limmes encanaped, I could say much: yet poised with her selfe, That gorgeous worke did seeme but drossy pelfe.
From Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) by Miller, Paul William
But that same lofty countenance seemes to scorne Base thing, and thinke how she to heaven may clime; Treading downe earth as lothsome and forlorne, That hinders heavenly thoughts with drossy slime.
From The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 by Spenser, Edmund
Amongst the drossy twaddle which passed current as poetry at Eartham, a sonnet in Romney's honour by a true poet—William Cowper—may be counted as pure gold.
From Art in England Notes and Studies by Cook, Dutton
They found a plentiful seam of drossy, yellowish coal behind the Methodist New Connection Chapel.
From The Lost Girl by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
When the strike was over, two or three miners still remained working the soft, drossy coal, which they sold for eight-and-sixpence a ton—or sixpence a hundredweight.
From The Lost Girl by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
