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Definitions

scum

[skuhm] / skʌm /
NOUN
superficial impurities, dirt
Synonyms
Antonyms




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Also a knighthood and a castle and certainly social status that ensures he won’t be treated like scum.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

The researchers found that both microalgal scum and macroalgal mats increased globally between 2003 and 2022.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026

But not long after the job was complete, the paint began to visibly peel, and the gleaming waters promptly refilled with green pond scum.

From Barron's ● Jun. 21, 2026

“I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with,” Trump said.

From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2025

His nose sharpened when he saw the greasy sink with its scum of food bits at the bottom.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

When this occurs, blue-green algae can form blooms that discolour the water, or produce floating mats or scums on the water's surface.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2025

When this occurs, the algae can form blooms that discolour the water or produce floating mats or scums on the water’s surface.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2024

“You’re in the business of representing scums and trying to make as much money as long as there’s this lapse in the law.”

From Time ● Aug. 6, 2014

The commonest of these pond scums belong to the genus Spirogyra, and one of these will illustrate the characteristics of the order.

From Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses by Douglas Houghton Campbell

There are various genera of the pond scums, differing in the form of the chloroplasts and also in the position of the spores.

From Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses by Douglas Houghton Campbell

A thick mist scummed the windshields as the 39-car motorcade rolled eastward under the grey sky toward Andau, a scant kilometer from the border.

From Time Magazine Archive

The lake opened out before them, scummed with foam and torn into choppy, white-topped waves among which the logs were tossing.

From The Boss of Wind River by A. M. (Arthur Murray) Chisholm

Clarifiers reach the boiling point much quicker, and cannot easily be scummed.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by P. L. Simmonds

Boil them together a little while, till it be well scummed, and enough to become gelly.

From The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Anne MacDonell

It is here laboured or beaten with great staves, like batter or white starch, when it is allowed to settle, and the clear water on the top is scummed off.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 by Robert Kerr

The mission stories often guide you through a level’s most unique assassinations, which is a nice gift to players who don’t like engaging in the aggressive, save scumming and trial-and-error obsessiveness those never-be-seen challenges require.

From The Verge ● Jan. 27, 2021

The next day boil it gently, scumming it all the while till no more scum riseth; and if you will clarifie the Liquor with a few beaten whites of Eggs, it will be the clearer.

From The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Anne MacDonell

"There is a brain that will endure but one scumming."

From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 6 Letters 1821-1842 by Mary Lamb

To every pint of juice, add two pounds of powdered loaf-sugar, boiling and scumming it in the same manner as for any other jam or jelly.

From The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families by Mary Eaton

Boil all these together, till the scum be boiled in, not scumming it.

From The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened by Anne MacDonell




Vocabulary lists containing scum


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