dross vs muck

dross

noun
  • Waste or impure matter. 

  • Worthless or trivial matter. 

  • The impurities in metal. 

  • Residue that forms on the surface of molten metal from oxidation. 

  • A waste product from working with metal. 

verb
  • To remove dross from. 

muck

noun
  • Anything filthy or vile. Dirt; something that makes another thing dirty. 

  • Heroin. 

  • Semen. 

  • Soft (or slimy) manure. 

  • The pile of discarded cards. 

  • Grub, slop, swill 

  • Slimy mud, sludge. 

verb
  • To manure with muck. 

  • To shovel muck. 

  • To vomit. 

  • To do a dirty job. 

  • To pass, to fold without showing one's cards, often done when a better hand has already been revealed. 

How often have the words dross and muck occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )