offscouring

American  

[awf-skou^uhr-ing, -skou-er-, of-] / ˈɔfˌskaʊər ɪŋ, -ˌskaʊ ər-, ˈɒf- /

noun

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

2. a social outcast.

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Etymology

Origin of offscouring

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

offscouring

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

Now, of course, we are not about to become the offscouring of the earth by yielding these up to destruction.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 67, May, 1863 by Various

That woman, his wife," she concluded, "made me feel that I was of the scum and offscouring of the earth, and they've made me feel so here, too—even these wretched paupers.

From He Fell in Love with His Wife by Roe, Edward Payson

Isaac Stuart is not a leading member of a church consisting, as the early churches chiefly consisted, of what the world regard as the dregs of society—"the offscouring of all things."

From The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 4 of 4 by American Anti-Slavery Society

The offscouring of all London flocked to the Sunday services as to a public entertainment.

From Church History, Vol. 3 of 3 by Kurtz, J. H.