plural noun
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the residue left after cleaning grain
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residue that remains after scouring
Etymology
Origin of scourings
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.
Ship's cheese came adulterated with kitchen scourings, rancid fat and glue.
From Time Magazine Archive
But when they had scoured the waterfront boardinghouses, Prince shook his head over their scourings.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Nevertheless I had heard many tales of his sayings and his humours, for our curate was not as most others—dull and truculent knaves many of them, according to my thinking—the scourings of the North.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
They had been recruited from the off- scourings of large towns and cities, enervated by idleness, debauchery, and every species of vice, which unfitted them for the arduous service of Indian warfare.
From An Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, or Red Jacket, and His People, 1750-1830 by Hubbard, John Niles
Ever since the crests of the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains were thrust up above the sea, the river has been wearing them away, and bearing the scourings to the vast plain below.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
