MEANING
1. Material, writing, or other content judged to be worthless or of very little value.
2. Impurities and oxidized material that collect on the surface of molten metal.
Use it for
criticizing content as low-value; contrasting useful material with unwanted residue; showing a character’s dismissive evaluation rather than endorsing itSeparates material residue from a critic’s judgment that something is worthless, without confusing that judgment with proof. Writing functions: Worthlessness / Residue.
Words that belong together
- worthless dross
- commercial dross
- separate the valuable material from the dross
On the page
He dismissed the notebooks as dross without opening the final volume.
The editor’s task was not simply to remove dross but to explain the value of what remained.
A dull layer of dross floated above the brighter metal.
The memoir describes the dross left at the surface, not the finished casting.
Word forms
- Base
- dross
Usage notes
Usually uncountable: dross. No ordinary plural needed. Figurative use often carries a dismissive judgment. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon in conversation; established in criticism (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.