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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.

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 Andrew, Elizabeth Wheeler

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.

The third is—to her coffin; broken down; beggared, perhaps starving, she’ll die surrounded by the offscouring of the earth—happy if she reaches her grave before she has run her full course.’

From The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 Volume 23, Number 5 by Clark, Lewis Gaylord

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