Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DROSS
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DROSS:
Say it "DROSS." It rhymes with "boss."
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connect this word to others:
Let's say you've written a hundred poems, and you want to gather the best ones into a book. Twenty are great; you include them. And the rest range from mediocre to bad; you chuck them out.
What do you call the ones you chucked out? Besides trash, garbage, recycling, or throwaways? Or crap, or its various crude equivalents? You're a poet, so you want a metaphorical term.
You might call them dregs, if you prefer a metaphor about liquor or tea.
You might call them c____, if you prefer a metaphor about food or farming.
And you might call them dross, if you prefer a metaphor about metalworking. Especially if you think of your good poems as little nuggets of gold.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "dross" comes from Old English and means "the impure, throwaway material that falls off as metals are being melted."
From EnduringTechPress, here's some dross getting skimmed off from aluminum:
Figuratively speaking, dross is "the garbage parts of anything: the parts that seem to fall off and get thrown away."
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, the uncountable kind: "We sifted through the dross."
Other forms:
Drossy, drossiness; drossless.
how to use it:
The word "dross" is semi-common, with a harsh tone.
You might talk about people producing, publishing, writing, viewing, or enjoying dross--or dismissing things as dross. Or, talk about material that's mostly dross, or about material that subsides or devolves into dross.
Or, talk about people sifting through the dross: searching for (or finding) the good, wonderful, high-quality stuff amid or among the dross. "In among the dross there are revelations (The Guardian);" "We are looking for [good wine] among the dross of the supermarket shelf (Washington Post)."
examples:
"Bourbon Street was a disappointment, with its tourist dross, sleazy clubs and drunken gaggles clutching cocktails."
— Ian Birrell, The Guardian, 3 December 2010
"Good actors making poor choices — especially when the actor is Nicolas Cage — is nothing new, but I worry that the dross... is rapidly outpacing the gold."
— Jeannette Catsouli, New York Times, 24 September 2015
has this page helped you understand "dross"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "dross" without saying "scum" or "offal."
try it out:
A writer for Slate noted that the poet Walt Whitman "loved the world in its dross and guts and glitter, in its everything—the tulip trees and all trees, the glowworms and all worms."
I feel the same about the show Firefly. I even love the dross: the worst villain (Atherton Wing) and the worst episode ("The Message").
Can you, too, think of something you love as much as Whitman loves the natural world? Which parts are the dross, and why? Why do you still love those parts in spite of their drossiness?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Crossword Clues: Movie Titles!
Use the movie title as a clue to come up with a word we've studied. For example, if the clue is "The Great Escape. 6 letters. _ E C _ M _," then the answer is "DECAMP," a word meaning "to get the heck out of there." To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Enjoy!
Try this one today:
Inglourious Basterds.
8 letters.
S _ L _ _ _ S M.
review this word:
A. FODDER and GEM.
B. PROCESSING and OUTPUT.
C. HUMOR and EXAGGERATION.
2.
A writer for the Wall Street Journal described the "golden" age of television as increasingly "drossy," filled with shows that _____.
A. turn tiny profits
B. earn cult followings
C. aren't worth watching
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Let's say you've written a hundred poems, and you want to gather the best ones into a book. Twenty are great; you include them. And the rest range from mediocre to bad; you chuck them out.
The word "dross" comes from Old English and means "the impure, throwaway material that falls off as metals are being melted."
Part of speech:
The word "dross" is semi-common, with a harsh tone.
"Bourbon Street was a disappointment, with its tourist dross, sleazy clubs and drunken gaggles clutching cocktails."
Explain the meaning of "dross" without saying "scum" or "offal."
A writer for Slate noted that the poet Walt Whitman "loved the world in its dross and guts and glitter, in its everything—the tulip trees and all trees, the glowworms and all worms."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
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