SCUM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Scum

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/skəm/ Listen

noun

Scum n.

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. "Some to remove the scum as it did rise."

Refuse; recrement; anything vile or worthless. "The great and innocent are insulted by the scum and refuse of the people."

verb

Scum v. t. (past & past part. scummed; pres. part. scumming)

To take the scum from; to clear off the impure matter from the surface of; to skim. "You that scum the molten lead."

To sweep or range over the surface of. (Obs.) "Wandering up and down without certain seat, they lived by scumming those seas and shores as pirates."

Scum v. i. To form a scum; to become covered with scum. Also used figuratively. "Life, and the interest of life, have stagnated and scummed over."

See images of 'Scum'

Etymology of 'Scum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Scum" Quotes from Famous Books

... have crawled down the trunk in autumn, to lie there self-buried and die to live again next spring in a new and fairer shape. And if you cannot reach even there, go to the water-but in the nearest yard, and there, in one pinch of green scum, in one spoonful of water, behold a whole "Divina Commedia" of living forms, more fantastic a thousand times than those with which Dante peopled his unseen world: and then feel, as you should feel, abashed at the ignorance and weakness of mortal man; abashed still more at that rash conceit ...

— Scientific Essays and Lectures • Charles Kingsley

... combination Nigudar-Hazarah, whencesoever it was got. The Hazaras are eminently Mongol in feature to this day, and it is very probable that they or some part of them are the descendants of the Karaunahs or the Nigudaris, or of both, and that the origination of the bands so called, from the scum of the Mongol inundation, is thus in degree confirmed. The Hazaras generally are said to speak an old dialect of Persian. But one tribe in Western Afghanistan retains both the name of Mongols and a language of which six-sevenths (judging from a vocabulary published by Major Leech) appear ...

— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... advantages for the preliminary purification. Not over one to two per cent. of scums should be used. If in too great quantity, the raw juices will yield inferior results. During operations that follow, experiments are not yet sufficiently advanced to determine with certainty within what limits the refuse scum utilization process is to be recommended. We have great doubts as to the wisdom of introducing foreign elements, eliminated from other juices in a previous operation, into a juice fresh ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 832, December 12, 1891 • Various

... of that, you scum of the earth!" he roared. "Come out of that and tell me why you ...

— The Sign at Six • Stewart Edward White

... was enough to make me so," answered Jack. "You cannot know what you are doing that you so much as think of marrying that scum. For years he has been nothing but a spy and mackerel, willing to do the dirtiest work, and the scorn of every decent man in London, as here. Are you, are your father and mother, are your friends, all Bedlam-crazed that ...

— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

More quotes...