| 释义 |
▪ I. dross, n.|drɒs|
Also: 1–6 dros, 5–7 drosse.
[OE. drós = MLG. drôs, MDu. droes dregs. A lengthened form, drosen, ME. drosne, OE. drósna, corresponds to OHG. truosana, MHG. truosen, Ger. drusen pl. husks of grapes, lees, dregs. See Kuhn's Zeitschr. XXXIV. 513 (1896).]
1. The scum, recrement, or extraneous matter thrown off from metals in the process of melting.
c1050Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 353 Auriculum, dros. a1225Ancr. R. 284 Gold and seoluer clenseð ham of hore dros iðe fure. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 3339 Als gold, þat shynes clere and bright..Whar it put in fire to fyn mare Yhit suld it leve sum dros þare. c1440Promp. Parv. 133/1 Drosse of metalle, scorium. 1598Hakluyt Voy. I. 91 (R.) As hard as the drosse of iron. 1678Phil. Trans. XII. 952 There swims on the Metal..a Scum, which they call Dross; much like to Sclag or Dross of Iron. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 239 Separate the gold by fire from the dross and mixture. 1830Tennyson Poems 123 Turn..dross to gold with glorious alchemy. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Dross, the material skimmed from the surface of freshly melted, not perfectly pure metal.
†b. Volcanic scoria. Obs. rare.
1811Pinkerton Petral. II. 307 Above are great masses of sand, red drosses, and puzzolana.
c. A workman's name for protoxide of lead.
1875Ure's Dict. Arts III. 73 Fresh quantities of litharge or pot dross..are from time to time thrown in. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 81/1 The first step..is to convert the lead into..protoxide, which is more usually called ‘dross’ by the workmen than litharge or massicot.
d. An alloy incidentally formed in the zinc-bath, by the action of the zinc on the iron pot and iron articles dipped. (Wahl Galvanopl. Manip. 1884).
2. Dreggy, impure, or foreign matter, mixed with any substance, and detracting from its purity; e.g. the dregs or lees of oil or wine, the chaff of corn, etc.
c1440Promp. Parv. 133/1 Drosse of corne, acus, criballum. 1594Plat Jewell-ho. ii. 12 You shall find a fourth or fifth part of drosse in the best butter. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 39 She shall reserue the drosse of the Grapes shee presseth. Ibid. 46 Take the drosse of oyle of Linseed. 1812J. Smyth Pract. Customs (1821) 379 Report what allowance ought to be made for dross and dirt on the Bees-wax.
b. A miner's name for iron pyrites in coal; also, small or waste coal, the screenings of the coalhills.
1829Glover Hist. Derby I. 234 Many of the coal-seams..have considerable quantities of brasses or drosses in them, which are lumps of iron pyrites. 1854Encycl. Brit. VII. 117/1 A heap of dross or small coal. 1872Daily News 12 Oct., Great black mounds of coal dross. 1892Labour Commission Gloss., Dross, ‘small coal’ [Ibid. s.v. Coal, the duff, slag, or waste, which arises from the sorting of the large coal into nuts, and which passes through the screen bars]. 1894Times 16 Apr. 4/3 Quietness rules in the coal trade..Dross is scarce and dearer.
c. Salt-making. ‘The refuse or marl left after dissolving rock-salt in water.’ Chester Gloss. 1884.
3. fig. from 1 and 2. (Cf. dregs, dreg 3.)
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 5 Our lorde wolde not that we sholde take the drosse of the lawe of Moyses. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative 119 The Dregs and Lees of the Earth, and Drosse of Mankinde. 1745A. Butler Lives of Saints (1836) 104 The seventh general persecution, permitted by God to purge away the dross of his flock. 1810Scott Lady of L. ii. xxii, A human tear From passion's dross refined and clear.
4. In general: Refuse; rubbish; worthless, impure matter.
c1440Promp. Parv. 133/1 Drosse, or fylthe..qwat so it be, ruscum, rusculum. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ix. 200 His chambre..with the tempest was dung in dros. 1632G. Fletcher Christ's Tri. 26 So tinne for silver goes, and dunghill drosse for gold. 1671Milton P.R. iii. 23 All treasures and all gain esteem as dross. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 428 The stars, tho' rich, what dross their gold to thee. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. i, He was of different quality from the human dross around her.
5. attrib. and Comb., as dross heap, dross iron; dross-full, dross-rich adjs.
1428in Surtees Misc. (1888) 2 And iiij⊇ and mo peces of fals drosseyren. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. Ded. 14 Such sparks may flame..A higher pitch, then dross-full Vanity. 1881W. T. Ross Poems 69 The dross-rich earthling leaves life's stage. 1893Peel Spen Valley 13 Having stood for a long time on the edge of a dross heap.
▪ II. dross, v.
[f. prec. n.]
†1. trans. dross out: to sift out as dross. Obs.
1641Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 105 In every bushell of meale..there is very neare a pecke of chizell drossed out.
†2. To render drossy or impure; to corrupt. Obs.
1648Earl Westmld. Otia Sacra (1879) 69 Of full Power to refine the deed Our Parents Dross'd by their Corruption.
3. To convert (lead) into ‘dross’ or protoxide.
1891Address Brit. Assoc. in Nature 27 Aug., In ‘drossing’ molten lead, the oxidation of the lead is greatly promoted by the presence of a trace of antimony.
4. To free from dross, remove dross from.
1884W. H. Wahl Galvanopl. Manip. 529. (Cent. Dict.) |