How do you use the word "scum" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "scum" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "scum": You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Stop right there, you criminal scum!

Scum Meaning

/skʌm/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially molten metal or water).

nounA greenish water vegetation (such as algae), usually found floating on the surface of ponds

Sentence Examples

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Stop right there, you criminal scum!

He's the scum of the earth. A waste of time.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

trash

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

After the storm, a thick layer of green ____ floated on the stagnant pond water.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

A layer of green ____ had formed on the surface of the neglected garden pond.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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:

"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:

"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 soft" — 1769, Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English House-keeper, pages 321–322:

"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 them there they shold ryde" — 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:

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