deposit

deposit n Deposit, precipitate, sediment, dregs, lees, grounds mean matter which settles to the bottom of or is let fall from suspension in a fluid (as air or water).

Deposit, the most comprehensive term, refers to matter let fall by a natural or mechanical process to remain where it settles until there is a visible layer or accumulation

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a deposit of soot in a chimney

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a deposit of gravel on the bed of a river

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rich deposits of coal

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the walls of the houses are clean and less discolored by the deposit of carbon than usual in most towns— Jefferies

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Precipitate denotes a usually solid substance separated from a solution or suspension by some chemical interaction or by some physical force (as heat, cold, or centrifugal force)

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camphor may be obtained as a precipitate from an alcoholic solution by addition of water

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some finely divided precipitates (as silver chloride and zinc sulfide) coalesce into amorphous, curdy, or flocculent masses that remain suspended near the surface of the liquid

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Sediment applies to matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid

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sharp rocks hidden by sediment spoiled the cove for diving

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The word may be used of other matters with emphasis on a foreign element that disturbs the clarity or purity of something

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the poetry of all these men contained a deep sediment of prose meaning— Day Lewis

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Dregs and lees typically apply to the sediment found at the bottom of a cask or a bottle of some alcoholic or fermenting liquor, but the terms may be used of other things that, like a sediment, suggest that something now fair has been formerly turbid, foul, or offensive, or that imply the worthlessness of what lies at' the bottom or is left over

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destined to drain the cup of bitterness, even to its dregs— Southey

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the very dregs of the population—C. M. Davies

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I will drink life to the lees— Tennyson

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the angler . . . has left for his day's work only the lees of his nervous energy— Kingsley

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the sonnet became ... a thing of frigid conceits worn bare by iteration; of servile borrowings; of artificial sentiment, flat as the lees and dregs of wine— Lowes

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Grounds is used of the small particles left after serving or drinking a beverage (as coffee); usually the term carries no implication of a disagreeable sediment but simply of one from which all the flavor has been exhausted.

Analogous words: falling, dropping, sinking, subsiding (see FALL)