Scummed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To remove or clear off a layer of undesirable or impure matter from a surface or liquid; to behave in a contemptible or morally low manner; to accumulate or form a frothy layer on a liquid's surface
2. To skim off impurities or a froth from the top of a liquid; to act in a reprehensible or base way; to gather or develop a surface film of unwanted substance
3. To clean a liquid by taking away floating scum; to conduct oneself in a despicable way; to develop or have a superficial coating of grime or froth

Etymology: Scum began as a word for foam. Its Middle English forms (scum, scome, skum) were borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch "schūme", meaning foam, which traces back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning froth. German "Schaum" and Dutch "schuim" still carry that original sense of foam on a bubbling liquid. The sense of a dirty layer on top came from the same idea: the frothy stuff that rises on boiling or standing liquid is exactly what a cook or brewer skims off. Over time the word moved from the froth itself to the unwanted film that forms on top of liquids, and then to the low, dirty people who were seen as the froth of society, the sense that gives "scummed" its contemptuous ring. The verb "scum" developed from the noun, and "scummed" is its past tense and participle. Its wider uses, to clean away floating scum, to behave despicably, or to become coated in grime or froth, all grow from the noun's core image of something unwanted rising to the surface.

Synonyms: skimmed, cleaned, scraped, cleared, removed

Antonyms: accumulated, collected, gathered, deposited, settled