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offscouring

American  
[awf-skouuhr-ing, -skou-er-, of-] / ˈɔfˌskaʊər ɪŋ, -ˌskaʊ ər-, ˈɒf- /

noun

  1. Often offscourings. something scoured off; filth; refuse.

  2. a social outcast.


Etymology

Origin of offscouring

1520–30; off + scour 1 ( def. ), + -ing 1 ( def. ), after verb phrase scour off

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.

They were the despised and rejected, the wretched and the spat upon, the earth’s offscouring; and he was in their company, and they would swallow up his soul.

From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin

It is here called "The offscouring of the British land."

From Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters by Earle, John

Had we been strangers to this offscouring of a thousand miles of beach, swirling past us at a six-mile gait, we might well have doubted the prudence of launching little Pilgrim upon such a sea.

From Afloat on the Ohio An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo by Thwaites, Reuben Gold

Where, on the contrary, its exercise is regarded as the badge of dishonor and the vile office of the refuse and offscouring of the race, its largess must be proportionably meagre and scanty.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 02, December, 1857 by Various

The third is—to her coffin; broken down; beggared, perhaps starving, she’ll die surrounded by the offscouring of the earth—happy if she reaches her grave before she has run her full course.’

From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 Volume 23, Number 5 by Clark, Lewis Gaylord