dregs
English
Etymology
See dreg.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɹɛɡz/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛɡz
Noun
dregs pl (plural only)
- (collectively) The sediment settled at the bottom of a liquid; the lees in a container of unfiltered wine.
- (figuratively, the dregs) The worst and lowest part of something.
- the dregs of society
- 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, volume 3, chapter 9
- Yet even now I had not drunk the bitter potion to the dregs; I was not yet persuaded of my loss; I did not yet feel in every pulsation, in every nerve, in every thought, that I remained alone of my race - that I was The Last Man.
Usage notes
- The singular form dreg is far less common, but the phrase to the last dreg still has currency.
Synonyms
- The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. Use the templates
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- debris, deposit, draff, dross, exuviate, feculence, grounds, grouts, lees, loser, orts, outcast, rabble, refuse, residue, residuum, riffraff, rubbish, scum, sediment, settling, trash
Translations
settled sediment
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the worst and lowest
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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