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Dross has been a part of the English language since Anglo-Saxon times. It comes from the Old English word drōs, meaning "dregs," those solid materials that fall to the bottom of a container full of a liquid such as coffee or wine. While dross today is used to refer to anything of low value or quality, its earliest use is technical: dross is a metallurgy term referring to solid scum that forms on the surface of a metal when it is molten or melting—remove the dross to improve the metal. The metallurgical sense of the word is often hinted at in its general use, with dross set in contrast to gold, as when 19th century British poet Christina Rossetti wrote "Besides, those days were golden days, / Whilst these are days of dross."
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Examples of dross in a Sentence
Lev Grossman, The Atlantic, 30 Sep. 2024
But indie rocker Rosie Tucker’s Utopia Now! finds beauty in the dross of late capitalism.
—Nate Sloan, Vulture, 10 May 2024
Maybe our own era will look better in retrospect, when all the dross is cleared away.
—Justin Davidson, Curbed, 23 Oct. 2023
Suffice it to say that this book contains both wheat and chaff, both gold and dross.
—Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 9 Oct. 2023
There’s a lot of dross, to be sure, but there’s also so much that’s good.
—Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Aug. 2023
Television had at last ditched its (unfair) reputation as mindless dross; the people who sold television at least seemed to understand how limitless the art form could be.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2023
But there’s a bit too much dross amid what works — a sign of the times in terms of series orders being bulked out beyond what the story can sustain, and a reminder that, as a writer, Rice was not known for the gift of concision.
—Daniel D'addario, Variety, 3 Jan. 2023
Biden has turned gold into dross and, amazingly, expects to be rewarded for it.
—Matthew Continetti, National Review, 15 Oct. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dross.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Dross.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dross. Accessed 4 Nov. 2024.
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dross
noun
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