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offscouring

American  
[awf-skouuhr-ing, -skou-er-, of-] / ˈɔfˌskaʊər ɪŋ, -ˌskaʊ ər-, ˈɒf- /

noun

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

  2. 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.

See Examples For:

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

It is here called "The offscouring of the British land."

From Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters by Earle, John

Never did the universe before witness so astonishing a spectacle, as a nation destroyed as a nation, but preserved as individuals--preserved to suffer, and to be accounted the offscouring of all things.

From Female Scripture Biographies, Volume II by Cox, Francis Augustus

We are made as the filth of the world, and as the offscouring of all things unto this day.'

From Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts by Maclaren, Alexander

We are made as it were the filthiness of the world, the offscouring of all things, even unto this time.

From The first New Testament printed in English by

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