scum
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
scum
n 1: worthless people [syn: {trash}, {scum}]
2: a film of impurities or vegetation that can form on the
surface of a liquid
v 1: remove the scum from
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Scum \Scum\ (sk[u^]m), n. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Dan. & Sw.
skum, Icel. sk[=u]m, LG. schum, D. schuim, OHG. sc[=u]m, G.
schaum; probably from a root meaning, to cover. [root]158.
Cf. {Hide} skin, {Meerschaum}, {Skim}, v., {Sky}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The extraneous matter or impurities which rise to the
surface of liquids in boiling or fermentation, or which
form on the surface by other means; also, the scoria of
metals in a molten state; dross.
[1913 Webster]
Some to remove the scum as it did rise. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
2. refuse; recrement; anything vile or worthless.
[1913 Webster]
The great and innocent are insulted by the scum and
refuse of the people. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Scum \Scum\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scummed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Scumming}.]
1. To take the scum from; to clear off the impure matter from
the surface of; to skim.
[1913 Webster]
You that scum the molten lead. --Dryden &
Lee.
[1913 Webster]
2. To sweep or range over the surface of. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Wandering up and down without certain seat, they
lived by scumming those seas and shores as pirates.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
239 Moby Thesaurus words for "scum":
aerate, alluvion, alluvium, androcyte, antheridium, antherozoid,
apply to, ash, beat, bilge, bilgewater, blanket, block, bones,
breakers, canaille, canopy, carrion, cattle, chaff, cinder,
clinker, cloak, clothe, cloud, coat, coating, collar, collop, cope,
cover, cover up, covering, cowl, cream, culm, cur, curtain, cut,
deadwood, deal, deposition, deposits, diluvium, dishwater, disk,
ditchwater, draff, dregs, dregs of society, dross, dust, eclipse,
ember, enamel, facing, feces, feuille, filings, film, flap, foam,
foil, fold, froth, fur, garbage, gash, glop, grounds, gunk, head,
hogwash, hood, husks, lacquer, lamella, lamina, laminated glass,
laminated wood, lap, lather, lay on, lay over, leaf, leavings,
lees, loess, male gamete, mantle, mask, masses, membrane, meringue,
milt, mire, mob, moraine, mousse, muck, muffle, obduce, obscure,
occult, offal, offscourings, offscum, ooze, orts, overlay,
overspread, paint, pane, panel, parings, patina, peel, pellicle,
plait, plank, plate, plating, ply, plywood, pollen, potsherds,
precipitate, precipitation, prick, proletariat, protein, puff,
put on, raff, rags, ragtag and bobtail, rasher, raspings, refuse,
revetment, riffraff, rubbish, safety glass, scale, scoria,
scourings, scrap iron, scraps, screen, scud, scurf, sea foam,
sediment, seed, semen, seminal fluid, settlings, sewage, sewerage,
shards, shavings, sheet, shield, shit, shithead, silt, sinter,
skin, skunk, slab, slack, slag, slat, slice, slime, slob, slop,
slops, slosh, slough, sludge, slush, smut, snake, soapsuds, soot,
sordes, souffle, sperm, sperm cell, spermagonium, spermatic fluid,
spermatid, spermatiophore, spermatium, spermatocyte,
spermatogonium, spermatophore, spermatozoa, spermatozoid,
spermatozoon, spindrift, splosh, spoondrift, spray, spread over,
spume, stinging, stinker, stubble, sublimate, sud, suds,
superimpose, superpose, surf, sweepings, swill, swinish multitude,
table, tablet, tares, toad, trash, turd, unwashed, varnish, veil,
veneer, vermin, wafer, wastage, waste, waste matter, wastepaper,
weeds, whip, whisk, white water
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