Dross Definition

drŏs, drôs
noun
A scum formed on the surface of molten metal.
Webster's New World
Waste matter; worthless stuff; rubbish.
Webster's New World
Worthless, commonplace, or trivial matter.
American Heritage
verb

To remove dross from.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Dross

Noun

Singular:
dross
Plural:
drosses

Origin of Dross

  • From Middle English drosse, dros, from Old English drōs, an apocopated variant of Old English drōsna, drōsne (“a ground, sediment, lees, dregs, dirt, ear wax”), from Proto-Germanic *drōhsnǭ ("yeast, sediment"; compare Proto-Germanic *dragjō (“yeast”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrak-, *dʰrag- (“sediment, yeast”). Cognate with Scots dros, drose, drosse (“small particles, fragments, dross”), Middle Dutch droes (“dregs”), Dutch droesem (“dregs”), German Drusen (“lees, dregs”), Latin fracēs (“grounds or dregs of oil”). Related also to drast, dregs.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English dros from Old English drōs dregs

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to dross using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

Words Ending With

Unscrambles

dross