offscouring
Americannoun
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Often offscourings. something scoured off; filth; refuse.
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a social outcast.
Etymology
Origin of offscouring
1520–30; off + scour 1 ( def. ), + -ing 1 ( def. ), after verb phrase scour off
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Such doctors are the offscouring of the medical profession.
From Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers by Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew
Two notorious vagabonds, guilty of flagrant crimes, the very offscouring of the earth, were there; and nightly they filled the old jail with noise and riot, as though fiends were holding their orgies.
From I've Been Thinking; or, the Secret of Success by Azel Stevens Roe
Where, on the contrary, its exercise is regarded as the badge of dishonor and the vile office of the refuse and offscouring of the race, its largess must be proportionably meagre and scanty.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 02, December, 1857 by Various
Truly, as says the apostle, we are the offscouring of the earth, and we now stink in the nostrils of the men of the world.
From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Vol. 1 by Henry Martyn Baird
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
