| 释义 |
offscouring|ˈɒfˌskaʊərɪŋ, ˈɔː-|
[off- 3.]
1. The action of scouring off. rare.
1896Mrs. Caffyn Quaker Grandmother 21 My microscopical coating of dross needs no sweat of brow for its off⁓scouring.
2. That which is scoured off; filth or defilement cleaned off and cast aside; refuse, rubbish.
a. lit. (Almost always in pl.; cf. sweepings.)
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 196 Light may otherwise arise than from suns (as may be seen by..stale Sprats,..the off-scourings of an Oyster-shell). 1859Jephson Brittany ii. 16 Having carefully picked my way through the off⁓scourings of the lofty houses on either side of me. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 344 [Fires] consumed the offscourings of a great city.
b. fig. of persons. (In collective sing. (after 1 Cor. iv. 13) or pl.)
1526Tindale 1 Cor. iv. 13 The of scowrynge of all thinges. 1575–85Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 188 They are accounted as the offscourings, refuse, and baggage of the world. a1631Donne Lament. Jeremy III. xvii, Thou hast made us fall As refuse, and off-scouring to them all. 1775Adair Amer. Ind. 413 White people, who are generally the dregs and off⁓scourings of our colonies. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 10 The army..included..the very offscourings of society. 1835J. P. Kennedy Horse-Shoe Robinson I. xiv. 180 Why, you off-scouring,..it is enough to make Old Scratch laugh, to hear you talk about conscience! 1871Scribner's Monthly II. 546 Every Protestant is counted but the off⁓scouring of decent society. 1928H. W. Shoemaker in Publ. Pennsylvania Folk-Lore Soc. I. iv. 10 That dressy offscouring will not come back for her... I've known him and his kind too well for more than fifty years. 1972F. W. Lindsay Cariboo Dream 13/2 Thugs, gamblers and the off-scourings of the world. |