scum
/skʌm/
scum noun: a layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).
Noun
scum (countable and uncountable, plural scums or scum)
- A layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).
- During smelting, scum rises to the surface and is then removed by the smelter.
- A greenish water vegetation (such as algae), usually found floating on the surface of ponds
- These organisms form scum in large quantities.
- The topmost liquid layer of a cesspool or septic tank.
- Semen.
- Horse, who was always talking about facts, said, “Man, that can't be scum, ’cause scum is white.”1965, Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, New York: New American Library, →OCLC, page 80
- Synonyms:
- baby batter, baby gravy, balljuice, boy juice, cock juice, cock snot, come, cream, creme, cum
- A reprehensible person or persons.
- People who sell used-up pens are scum, just total low-lives.
Verb
scum (third-person singular simple present scums, present participle scumming, simple past and past participle scummed)
- To remove the layer of scum from (a liquid etc.).
- To remove (something) as scum.
- Some scumd the drosse, that from the metall came; / Some stird the molten owre with ladles great[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- To become covered with scum.
- Take the smallest Cucumbers you can get, and as free from Spots as possible, put them into a strong Salt and Water for nine or ten Days, or 'till they are quite Yellow, and stir them twice a Day at least, or they will scum over, and grow soft1769, Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English House-keeper, pages 321–322
- To scour (the land, sea, etc.).
- SOo by Merlyns aduys ther were sente fore rydars to skumme the Countreye / & they mette with the fore rydars of the north / and made hem to telle whiche wey the hooste cam / and thenne they told it to Arthur / and by kyng Ban and Bors counceill they lete brenne and destroye alle the contrey afore...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I
- Wandering up and down without certain seat, they lived by scumming those seas and shores as pirates.1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC
- To gather together, as scum.
- A great majority of the members are scummed together from the Jacobinical dregs of former periods of the revolution.1815, Rudolf Ackerman, Frederic Shoberl, The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics
- To startscum or savescum.
Proper noun capitalized: SCUM
SCUM
- Acronym of Society for Cutting Up Men.
- The most extreme position in the late 1960s came from SCUM, the Society for Cutting Up Men, whose manifesto began, […].1991, Timothy Miller, The hippies and American values, University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 67
scum meaning in Telugu
scum in Telugu
- layer of impurities
- తెట్టు teṭṭu
Examples of scum in a sentence
- I add algicide to my aquarium to eliminate the green scum of algae that forms on the glass.
- We must CLEANSE Enroth of the Goblin scum that has infested it!
- Enema queens, like scat queens, are really the scum of the earth.
Synonyms of scum
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of scum
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scums |
| plural | scum |
| alternative form (obsolete) | skum |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scums |
| present participle | scumming |
| past participle | scummed |
| past | scummed |
Origin of scum
From Middle English scum, scome, skum, skome, scumme, from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch schūme (“foam”), from Old Dutch *scūm, from Frankish *skūm, from Proto-Germanic *skūmaz (“froth, foam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, conceal”). Cognate with Dutch schuim (“foam”), West Frisian skuum, German Schaum (“foam”), Danish and Swedish skum (“foam”). Compare also French écume (“scum”), Italian schiuma (“foam”), Saterland Frisian Skuum, Sicilian scuma (“foam”), Walloon schome (“scum, foam”), Lithuanian šamas (“catfish”) and skanus (“tasty”) from the same Germanic source. Related to skim.
Words formed from scum
- cyberscum
- descum
- Newscum
- offscum
- pond scum
- scrunge
- scumbag
- scumball
- scumbitch
- scumboard
- scumbreath
- scumbutt
- scumface
- scumfuck
- scumhead
- scumhole
- scumless
- scumlike
- scumlord
- scummer
- scummy
- scum of the earth
- scum-ridden
- scumshit
- scumsucker
- scumsucking
- scum valve
- scumwad
- scumware
- soap scum
- traumascum
- truscum
Phrases with scum
Words that rhyme with scum
Questions about scum
- What does scum mean?
- Scum means a layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).
- What is scum in Telugu?
- Scum in Telugu is తెట్టు (teṭṭu). See Scum meaning in Telugu.
- What part of speech is scum?
- Scum can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce scum?
- Scum is pronounced /skʌm/.
- What is the plural of scum?
- The plural of scum is scums.
Words near scum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scum (page history and authors); SCUM (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-scum.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.