scum
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: video-games
Etymology: From Middle English scum, scome, skum, skome, scumme, from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch schūme (“foam”), from Old Dutch *scūm, from Frankish *skūm, from Proto-Germanic *skūmaz (“froth, foam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, conceal”).
Cognate with Dutch schuim (“foam”), West Frisian skuum, German Schaum (“foam”), Danish and Swedish skum (“foam”). Compare also French écume (“scum”), Italian schiuma (“foam”), Saterland Frisian Skuum, Sicilian scuma (“foam”), Walloon schome (“scum, foam”), Lithuanian šamas (“catfish”) and skanus (“tasty”) from the same Germanic source. Related to skim.
Inflected forms:
form: scums
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: skum
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: scums
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: scumming
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: scummed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: scummed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: skum
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: During smelting, scum rises to the surface and is then removed by the smelter.
gloss: A greenish water vegetation (such as algae), usually found floating on the surface of ponds
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: These organisms form scum in large quantities.
gloss: The topmost liquid layer of a cesspool or septic tank.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Semen.
pos: noun
tags: US
slang
uncountable
examples: Horse, who was always talking about facts, said, “Man, that can't be scum, ’cause scum is white.”
gloss: A reprehensible person or persons.
pos: noun
tags: countable
derogatory
slang
uncountable
examples: People who sell used-up pens are scum, just total low-lives.
gloss: To remove the layer of scum from (a liquid etc.).
pos: verb
gloss: To remove (something) as scum.
pos: verb
examples: Some scumd the drosse, that from the metall came; / Some stird the molten owre with ladles great[…].
gloss: To become covered with scum.
pos: verb
examples: Take the smallest Cucumbers you can get, and as free from Spots as possible, put them into a strong Salt and Water for nine or ten Days, or 'till they are quite Yellow, and stir them twice a Day at least, or they will scum over, and grow soft
gloss: To scour (the land, sea, etc.).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: SOo by Merlyns aduys ther were sente fore rydars to skumme the Countreye / & they mette with the fore rydars of the north / and made hem to telle whiche wey the hooste cam / and thenne they told it to Arthur / and by kyng Ban and Bors counceill they lete brenne and destroye alle the contrey afore them there they shold ryde
Wandering up and down without certain seat, they lived by scumming those seas and shores as pirates.
gloss: To gather together, as scum.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: A great majority of the members are scummed together from the Jacobinical dregs of former periods of the revolution.
gloss: To startscum or savescum.
pos: verb
tags: informal
Derived words: cyberscum
descum
Newscum
offscum
pond scum
scrunge
scumbag
scumball
scumbitch
scumboard
scumbreath
scumbutt
scumface
scumfuck
scumhead
scumhole
scumless
scumlike
scumlord
scummer
scummy
scum of the earth
scum-ridden
scumshit
scumsucker
scumsucking
scum valve
scumwad
scumware
soap scum
traumascum
truscum
Translations: