/dɹɒs/, /dɹɔs/, /dɹɑs/
OriginFrom Middle English drosse, dros, from Old English drōs, from Proto-Germanic *drōhs (“dregs, sediment”).
Also compare Old English drōsna, drōsne (“a ground, sediment, lees, dregs, dirt, ear wax”), from Proto-Germanic *drōhsnǭ, *drōhsnō (“dregs, sediment”), derived from *drōhs. Alternatively, this may be from *dragjō + *-snō (“yeast, sediment”; compare *dragjō (“yeast”)), as if from *drēcg + -sn.
Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrā́ks (“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.
- uncountable, usuallyResidue that forms as a scum on the surface of molten metal from oxidation.
- uncountable, usuallyThe impurities in metal.
- uncountable, usuallyA waste product from working with metal.
“Dross is related with the incomplete expulsion of the melt from the bottom of the kerf. For precision applications where the clean cutting edges are important the formation of dross at the bottom of t”
“One of the main problems with recycling and melting magnesium is the presence of particles in the melt which lead to the formation of dross and sludge. To be more precise, the necessary removal of dro”
- figuratively, uncountable, usuallyWorthless or trivial matter.
“What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross”
- slang, uncountable, usuallyResidual raw opium left in an opium pipe which can be recycled for further sale or use.
- transitiveTo remove dross from.
Formsdrosses(plural) · drosse(alternative, obsolete) · drosses(present, singular, third-person) · drossing(participle, present) · drossed(participle, past) · drossed(past)