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

When the strike was over, two or three miners still remained working the soft, drossy coal, which they sold for eight-and-sixpence a ton—or sixpence a hundredweight.

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

Astral money, it may be, Circulates in theory; But ’tis best to give us cold, Bilious, drossy, filthy gold.

From Cobwebs from a Library Corner by Bangs, John Kendrick

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 Sartor Resartus: the life and opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh by Carlyle, Thomas

Thus was the roofe adorn'd: but for the bed, The which those sacred limmes encanaped, I could say much: yet poised with her selfe, That gorgeous worke did seeme but drossy pelfe.

From Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) by Miller, Paul William

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