Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something that is scoured off or disposed of; refuse.
  • noun A person regarded as fallen from society; an outcast.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which is scoured off; hence, rejected matter; refuse; that which is vile or despised.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That which is scoured off; hence, refuse; rejected matter; that which is vile or despised.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun refuse removed from something by scouring
  • noun figuratively An outcast, a pariah.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From off- +‎ scouring.

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Examples

  • Officers desirous of Fame), but the "offscouring" & rabble of the land -- men who have nothing at stake, not even their own lives we might say, since they care so little for anything.

    Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, 1857-78 1853

  • But those who consider worldly pomp a mere offscouring and all under the sun mere nothingness if only they may win Christ, those who are dead with Christ, have risen with Him and have crucified the flesh with its vices and concupiscences - they will echo the words: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ?"

    The Death of St Jerome 2009

  • We are weak . . . we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things See 1 Corinthians 4:9-16.

    Archive 2008-06-01 bls 2008

  • We are weak . . . we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things See 1 Corinthians 4:9-16.

    Ss. Peter and Paul, June 29 bls 2008

  • Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

    Probably Just One Of Those Funny Coincidences 2006

  • Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

    Villaraigosa And Nunez Cut And Run - Video Report 2006

  • Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

    Villaraigosa And Nunez Cut And Run - Video Report 2006

  • Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

    Probably Just One Of Those Funny Coincidences 2006

  • Hilgenfeld's text, if we give a somewhat peculiar meaning to ellipein, may be translated: "but as it is becoming in one who loves you not to fail in giving you what we have, I, though the very offscouring of you, have been eager to write to you."

    ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus 1819-1893 2001

  • Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and labor, working with our own hands: Acts 18.3 being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

    1 Corinthians 4. 1999

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