dreg

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Norse dregg (“sediment”), from Proto-Germanic *dragjō (whence also Icelandic dregg, Swedish drägg), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrā́ks (“sediment”); see also Latin fraces (“lees of oil”), Albanian ndrag (“to make dirty, foul”), dra (“sediments of dairy products or liquids”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɹɛɡ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛɡ

Noun

dreg (countable and uncountable, plural dregs) (chiefly in the plural)

  1. Sediment in a liquid.
  2. (by extension) The lowest and most worthless part of something; scum.

Quotations

  • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
    What makes this pretty abruption? What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love?
  • 1768:O! be the cup of joy to thee consign'd, / Of joy unmix'd, without a dreg behind! — William Hayley, from 'On the Fear of Death, An Epistle to a Lady, 1768', in Poems on Serious and Sacred Subjects 1818.
  • 1910: Fear and trauma may drain to the last dreg the dischargeable nervous energy, and, therefore, the greatest possible exhaustion may be produced by fear and trauma. George W. Crile. in an address delivered at the Massachusetts General Hospital 15 Oct 1910, collected in The Origin and Nature of Emotions

Derived terms

Translations

References

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.048

Anagrams

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

dreg

  1. present of dra

Romanian

Verb

dreg

  1. inflection of drege:
    1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. third-person plural present indicative
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