residuum
(rɪˈzɪdjuːəm)
Pl. residua (rɪˈzɪdjuːə); also 8 residuums.
[a. L. residuum, neut. of residuus remaining, f. residēre to remain, reside v.1]
1. That which remains; a residue. (Chiefly of immaterial things, and often with more or less direct allusion to sense 3.)
| 1672 T. Jacombe Serm. Rom. (1868) 126/1 (Stanf.), God..lets out so much of these corruptions.., and the residuum or overplus he keeps in. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 93 That residuum of natural liberty. 1802 Jefferson Writ. (1830) III. 489 The residuum of money remaining in the treasury. 1848 H. Rogers Ess. (1874) I. vi. 287 His reasonings..are not, therefore, vitiated by the residuum of error which we reject. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 136 To us there seems to be no residuum of this long piece of dialectics. |
b. Applied to persons of the lowest class.
| 1867 Bright in Times 27 Mar. 7/4, I call this class the residuum, which there is in every constituency, of almost hopeless poverty and dependence. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. (1888) III. 71 The ignorant masses of such great cities as New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago,..answer better to what is called in England ‘the residuum’. |
2. Law.
= residue n. 2.
| 1743 Swinburne's Testaments i. (ed. 6) 40 One of the Daughters of the Testator sued for her distributive Part of the Residuum. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. 514 When all the debts and particular legacies are discharged, the surplus or residuum must be paid to the residuary legatee. 1842 Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. II. 250 In relation to the residuum which may be in the hands of the administrator. |
3. spec. That which remains after a process of combustion, evaporation, etc.; a deposit or sediment; a waste or residual product.
| 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 52 The residuum of Tinemouth sea water was some degrees brighter. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXIX. 433 The residuums of air that remained unabsorbed were more or less phlogisticated. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 822 The residuum of the pyrites is turned to account in Sweden. 1887 A. M. Brown Anim. Alkaloids p. xv, Of all the extractive composite residua the alkaloids of animal origin..are worthy of the deepest interest. |
| fig. 1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. i. (1872) 4 You could not evaporate the truth..and then show the residuum of falsehood glittering and visible. |