drossy

American  

[draw-see, dros-ee] / ˈdrɔ si, ˈdrɒs i /

adjective

drossier, drossiest

1. containing dross.

2. resembling dross; worthless.

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Other Word Forms

• drossiness
  noun
• undrossy
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of drossy

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at dross, -y ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drossy drossier

Amongst the drossy twaddle which passed current as poetry at Eartham, a sonnet in Romney's honour by a true poet—William Cowper—may be counted as pure gold.

From Art in England Notes and Studies by Cook, Dutton

They found a plentiful seam of drossy, yellowish coal behind the Methodist New Connection Chapel.

From The Lost Girl by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)

But that same lofty countenance seemes to scorne Base thing, and thinke how she to heaven may clime; Treading downe earth as lothsome and forlorne, That hinders heavenly thoughts with drossy slime.

From The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 by Spenser, Edmund

For most part, too, we must admit that the Learning, heterogeneous as it is, and tumbled-down quite pell-mell, is true, concentrated and purified Learning, the drossy parts smelted out and thrown aside.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. VIII by Various

We change our drossy dust for gold, From death to life we fly: We let go shadows, and take hold Of immortality.

From The Riches of Bunyan Selected from His Works by Bunyan, John

But spoyl’d, and rob’d, his drossier Glories gone, His Virtue and his Truth are still his own.

From Anti-Achitophel (1682) Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden by Jones, Harold Whitmore