dreg
/dreg/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A small amount of residue: A tiny, often undesirable, leftover portion of a liquid, typically found at the bottom of a container.
- The most worthless part: Used figuratively to describe the least desirable or most contemptible elements of something.
Usage
- The word "dreg" is almost always used in its plural form, "dregs".
- It literally refers to the sediment or grounds left in a cup of coffee, tea, or wine.
- Figuratively, it describes the last, worst, or most useless remnants of something.
Examples
- Literal use:
- He finished his coffee, swallowing the bitter dregs at the bottom of the cup.
- After pouring the wine, a dark sediment of dregs remained in the bottle.
- Figurative use:
- The criminal was considered the dreg of society.
- Only the dregs of the merchandise were left after the sale.
Advanced Usage
- "The dregs of [something]": The last and worst parts.
- He was forced to hire from the dregs of the applicant pool.
- "To drink/drain to the dregs": To consume something completely, leaving nothing; often used figuratively to mean to experience something, especially something unpleasant, to its fullest extent.
- She drank the bitter cup of failure to the dregs.
Variants and Related Words
- Dregs (n, plural): The standard and most common form of the word.
- Dreggy (adj, rare): Resembling or containing dregs; full of sediment.
Synonyms
- Sediment: Matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid.
- Lees: The sediment of wine in the barrel.
- Grounds: The sediment of coffee or tea.
- Remnant: A small remaining quantity.
- Refuse: Matter thrown away as worthless.
Idioms and Phrases
- "The dregs of society": A strongly derogatory phrase for people considered the most worthless or contemptible in a community.
- The charity aimed to help those whom others dismissed as the dregs of society.
- "Not a dreg": Not even the smallest amount left; completely gone.
- After the party, there was not a dreg of food remaining.
Noun
- a small amount of residue