SCUM (scummed, scumming)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: scummed    , scumming   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does scum mean? 

• SCUM (noun)
  The noun SCUM has 2 senses:

1. worthless people

2. a film of impurities or vegetation that can form on the surface of a liquid

  Familiarity information: SCUM used as a noun is rare.

• SCUM (verb)
  The verb SCUM has 1 sense:

1. remove the scum from

  Familiarity information: SCUM used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Worthless people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

scum; trash

Hypernyms ("scum" is a kind of...):

rabble; ragtag; ragtag and bobtail; riffraff (disparaging terms for the common people)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A film of impurities or vegetation that can form on the surface of a liquid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("scum" is a kind of...):

film (a thin coating or layer)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scum"):

dross; scoria; slag (the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals)

Derivation:

scum (remove the scum from)

scummy (covered with scum)

• SCUM (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove the scum from

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "scum" is one way to...):

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

scum (a film of impurities or vegetation that can form on the surface of a liquid)

 Context examples 

We found him, when we went to search for him, face downward in a little green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They are a deep, strong, silent stream, and you are the scum, the bubbles, the poor, silly froth that floats upon the surface.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was bowl-shaped and at the bottom, some hundreds of yards from where we lay, were pools of green-scummed, stagnant water, fringed with bullrushes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Strike me blind if this ayn’t gratitude for yer! ’Ere you come, a pore mis’rable specimen of ’uman scum, an’ I tykes yer into my galley an’ treats yer ’ansom, an’ this is wot I get for it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His employment, from his first coming into the academy, was an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food, by separating the several parts, removing the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odour exhale, and scumming off the saliva.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He learned to bite the ice out with his teeth when it collected between his toes; and when he was thirsty and there was a thick scum of ice over the water hole, he would break it by rearing and striking it with stiff fore legs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

For myself I care not a denier, though it is a poor thing to meet one's end at the hands of such scum; but I have my dear lady here, who must by no means be risked.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You are a precious set of people, ain't you? said Uriah, in the same low voice, and breaking out into a clammy heat, which he wiped from his forehead, with his long lean hand, to buy over my clerk, who is the very scum of society,—as you yourself were, Copperfield, you know it, before anyone had charity on you,—to defame me with his lies?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

All these were blotted out by a grotesque and terrible nightmare brood—frowsy, shuffling creatures from the pavements of Whitechapel, gin-bloated hags of the stews, and all the vast hell's following of harpies, vile-mouthed and filthy, that under the guise of monstrous female form prey upon sailors, the scrapings of the ports, the scum and slime of the human pit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Clutching the woodwork of the galley for support,—and I confess the grease with which it was scummed put my teeth on edge,—I reached across a hot cooking-range to the offending utensil, unhooked it, and wedged it securely into the coal-box.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)