Meaning & use
dreg
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Meanings
nouncountable
A tiny bit of solid material that sinks and collects at the bottom of a drink or other liquid.
Grammar: Almost always plural (dregs); a single dreg is rare: a few dregs, not a dreg.
Patterns
- the dregs of something
He tipped the cup and a single dreg of grounds slid onto his tongue.
Not one dreg of sediment was left in the bottle after we poured it through a cloth.
The cook scraped each dreg from the pot before washing it.
nounusually pluralfigurativedisapproving
The least valuable, useful or respected part of something, left over after the best has gone.
Grammar: Used as dregs, usually with of: the dregs of society.
Patterns
- the dregs of something
By the end of the sale, only the dregs of the stock were left on the shelves.
The team treated the final weeks as the dregs of a failed season.
She refused to call any group of people the dregs of the city.
Word forms
| plural | dregs |
|---|
Common combinations
- the dregs of society
- Old novels often painted the poor as the dregs of society, which was unfair.
- drain the dregs
- He drained the dregs of his coffee and left.
- dregs of wine
- The dregs of wine had turned the bottom of the glass purple.
- coffee dregs
- She read a fortune in the coffee dregs, as a joke.
- to the dregs
- They lived the experience to the dregs, holding nothing back.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sediment
- Sediment is the neutral, scientific word for settled material, while dregs sounds more like leftovers in a drink and can also be an insult.
- residue
- Residue can be any substance left behind after a process, whereas dregs specifically suggests what sinks to the bottom of a liquid.
- lees
- Lees is a specialist term for the settled yeast in wine or beer and is far less common than dregs.
- scum
- Scum floats on or coats the surface and is much more insulting when applied to people than dregs is.
Opposites
Word family
- dreggy adjective
- full of or like dregs; muddy
- dregs noun
- the usual plural form of the word
Commonly confused: dreg or drag?
dreg vs drag
Drag means to pull something along the ground; it only looks similar to dreg and has nothing to do with leftovers.
Practice
Which sentence uses the word 'dregs' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Dregs are the last bits left at the bottom of a drink, so the tea sentence fits. The other options do not use dregs as a noun for leftovers.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dreg”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.