dross

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dross

/dɹɒs/ Northern England, UK
/dɹɔs/ British, Southern, Standard
/dɾɒs/ UK, Wales
/dɾɔs/ Scotland, UK
/dɹɔs/ US
/dɹɑs/ US, cot caught merger
/dɹɒs/ Eastern New England, US
/dɹɒs/ Canada
/dɹɔs/ Australia
/dɹɒs/ New Zealand
[dɹɔ̟s] ~ [dɹɞ̠s] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒs, -ɔːs

Where it comes from

From Middle English drosse, dros, from Old English drōs, from Proto-Germanic *drōhs (“dregs, sediment”).

Also compare Old English drōsna, drōsne (“a ground, sediment, lees, dregs, dirt, ear wax”), from Proto-Germanic *drōhsnǭ, *drōhsnō (“dregs, sediment”), derived from *drōhs. Alternatively, this may be from *dragjō + *-snō (“yeast, sediment”; compare *dragjō (“yeast”)), as if from *drēcg + -sn.

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrā́ks (“sediment, yeast”).

Cognate with Scots dros, drose, drosse (“small particles, fragments, dross”), Middle Dutch droes (“dregs”), Dutch droesem (“dregs”), German Drusen (“lees, dregs”), Latin fracēs (“grounds or dregs of oil”). Related also to drast, dregs.

noun drosses · drosse

uncountable, usually Residue that forms as a scum on the surface of molten metal from oxidation.
Similar: slag, scoria
uncountable, usually The impurities in metal.
uncountable, usually A waste product from working with metal. Dross is related with the incomplete expulsion of the melt from the bottom of the kerf. For precision applications where the clean cutting edges are important the formation of dross at the bottom of the cutting kerf must be controlled. This requires deep understanding of the mechanisms of dross form
Similar: slag
figuratively, uncountable, usually Worthless or trivial matter. What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross
Similar: junk, rubbish
slang, uncountable, usually Residual raw opium left in an opium pipe which can be recycled for further sale or use.

verb drosses · drossing · drossed · drosse

transitive To remove dross from.

Translations

Every language

noun Waste or impure matter

Deutsch	Müll, Schrott
Ελληνικά	περιττό perittó
Русский	отбро́сы otbrósy

noun Residue that forms on the surface of molten metal

Español	escoria
Português	escória
Français	crasse, écume, scorie
Deutsch	Schlacke, Krätze
Italiano	scoria
Română	zgură
Русский	ока́лина okálina, шлак šlak

noun The impurities in metal

Русский	при́месь prímesʹ

noun A waste product from working with metal

Español	escoria
Română	zgură
Русский	шлак šlak

noun Worthless or trivial matter

Deutsch	Abschaum, Schund

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MLA

"dross." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dross. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dross. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dross

Chicago

"dross." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dross.

BibTeX

@misc{dross_2026,
  title = {dross},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dross},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}